All Levels
Reflecting on China
Sharon Santillo
Iwould not recommend going to
China for four days. The travel
back and forth takes you nearly
as long. And I would not recommend visiting Beijing in December
when the winds roar down out of
Siberia across Tiananmen Square.
But you know...I would do it all
again in a heartbeat!
An Invitation from NAEA
When I received a letter from
Susan Gabbard, the president of the
National Art Education Association
(NAEA), inviting me to participate
in a 2005 U.S. China Joint Education Conference, I had no idea the
experience would be so rewarding.
I joined the other 240 U.S. delegates, representing twelve aspects
of education,
in Beijing on
December 4,
2005. The art
education delegation of sixty
was the largest
group.
That I was selected for this trip
was just a happy geographical accident. People to People, sponsors of
the conference, wanted to have a
representative sampling of art educators from across the U.S. I was
honored to have my topic chosen for
presentation: “Picturing Writing,”
a model developed at the University
of New Hampshire by Beth Olshan-sky to help children develop writing
skills from their art.
Telling My Story
I told the story of how I got started
in Maynard, Massachusetts, seeing a pattern with children who
were struggling with reading and
writing, but who were very visually strong and articulate in my art
classes. The
Standards and teacher feeling that we
training are being developed, were missing
and the challenges in China a piece of the
puzzle led me
sound very much like the to read about
same ones we face here—lack Beth’s work at
of materials and funding. UNH. I have
been using this
model for six years and I am still
astounded by the results.
I knew I would not have to sell
my fellow art education delegates
on the power of art, but I was
surprised and pleased with the
responses I got from science and
social studies delegates, from language art teachers of high school
students who score low on standardized tests, from English as a
Second Language teachers, all seeing ways that this model would
A Warm Welcome
I was not prepared for the warm
greetings we received everywhere
we went in China. We were given a
dinner in the Great Hall of the People. In all the schools, children gave
us the peace sign, street vendors
tried out their “hello, hello,” and
the Chinese administrators in the
schools we visited walked us to our
bus when we left and stood there
waving until we disappeared down
the cold streets.
24 SchoolArts November 2006
work with their students too. I
was grateful to find sponsors who
believed in my message, including
Davis Publications, Inc, the publisher of SchoolArts. The Chinese
delegates loved SchoolArts
magazine and the copies I brought along
to share disappeared quickly.
Art Education in China
Mr. Zhen Wei of the College of Art
and Communication, Beijing Normal University, told us that rural
and western China is still poor. In
some places, students have to carry
stools and tables to school in order
to have a place to study. Yet the goal
is that all China’s schools, even
these rural ones, will have art education by 2010.
Standards and teacher training
are being developed, and the challenges in China sound very much
like the same ones we face here—
lack of materials and funding. Art
teachers are concerned that with
the rapid growth of cities, there is
a danger of losing traditional art
forms. Environmental pollution is
threatening the architectural and
cultural artifacts, and the conflict
between urban and rural is always
present in allocation of funds and
resources. Mr. Wei hopes that even
with the pressure on children by
parents and society to be somebody,
the joy and beauty of art can be
restored to the children.
Sharon Santillo teaches visual arts and
writing in Maynard Public Schools (
Massachusetts), and for the University of New
Hampshire. sharon.santillo@verizon.net
WEB LINK
www.picturingwriting.org
