ARTPALS

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in our grade school doing an ArtPals presentation. ArtPals are a bunch of ladies who go into the schools (kindergarten through 4th grade right now but we're hoping to add older kids each year) and guide the kids through Perceptual and Aesthetic Learning through Scanning of various classic prints.

Most kids just call us the art ladies.

Each class gets one visit per month and most of us make two visits through the year.

Last year I presented to third graders but this year they moved me down to first grade. I don't know if that was a reflection on my behavior or a need to rotate personnel.

I won't ask.

Anyway.

If my college Art Appreciation course had been taught the way we teach ArtPals, I would have enjoyed it much more. I would have actually acquired an appreciation for art. Sitting in a dark classroom at 8 a.m. watching slide after slide after slide of various works of art, while listening to a monotone of names and dates does not really induce one into a euphoric interest in art.

Had I been able to look closely at each piece of art, comment on it, ask questions, really ENJOY it, I might not have caught so many ZZZZZZZ's on Tuesday and Thursday mornings during my freshman year of college.

ArtPals? Where were you 24 years ago?

So....first graders?

First graders are really fun little people.

I had several little girls tell me that they were already "awtists" because they take art lessons one day a week.

One little boy cried through the entire presentation and the project to follow. Something very heartbreaking had evidently happened at lunch just prior to my arrival.

Another little boy asked me if the paper I handed out for them to draw on was the same kind of paper our featured artist had used 507 years ago.

Good question.

Oh, and since our print yesterday was Young Hare by Albrecht Durer, I got to hear many many stories of pet rabbits, including how they died.

In one class we spent about 6 minutes discussing why the art ladies felt the need to laminate the prints before bringing them to the school.

In yet another class, in the middle of my riveting presentation of our print, a small digital alarm started beeping and 20 tiny voices yelled "FLOOR CHECK!!" and dropped to the carpet.

Wait, what?

So I had to stop my presentation so the kids could clean up the floor around their desks.

Apparently Mrs. S's first graders have floor check every hour.

Blake, Kayla? We will be implementing the floor check alarm in the W house this weekend.

We ArtPals do receive training with our Area Arts Council. The official ArtPals program offers a total of nine hours of training to prepare us for this volunteer program. Unfortunately, some of my training was scheduled while my dad was ill so I'm not fully trained. But nobody is going to fire me because I'm eager and willing to enter the grade school on a volunteer basis when I have no children in the grade school any more.

Which makes me sort of an oddball at the meetings. As each (much younger) mother would ask me "what is your child's name? Who's their teacher?" (At least they didn't say grandchild.) I would say "Oh, my kids are in high school."

"Oh, so you have a background in art?"

"No, my degree is in social work. I just couldn't tell Mary Jo NO, when she asked for my help."

"So...you have no kids in grade school, but you come in anyway to present ArtPals?"

"Sure."

"OooooooKaaaaaay." As though they've just seen me poking myself with a straight pin over and
over again.

The truth is, I like being back in the grade school with the little kids. I love the phase of parenting I'm in but I like being back with the little ones every now and then. It's refreshing.

It's fun.

It's something I can continue to do after my chicks have left the nest in a few short years.

Those of you with little ones, check out your local Arts Council and see if they have an ArtPals program that you can implement in your school.

Then maybe you too can learn about FLOOR CHECK! and discuss the benefits of lamination.