No Parroting Allowed!
Learning Emergence by Asking Questions


"What Blocks Peoples' Ability to Make Art?"

When asked, "how do you best learn?" most people usually respond with either a technique, like, "in a classroom," or by naming their favorite sense, like, "I learn best visually." Unfortunately, this implies most people define "learning" as the ability to parrot the correct answer.

What is wrong with this? We believe that "parroting the correct answer" creates parrots, not students; dullards, not Einsteins. So how can we create more Einsteins? By asking questions which are intended to provoke the student's own questions. More important, we see this as the best way with which to reawaken in students the love of learning.

This week's topic is, "What Blocks Peoples' Ability to Make Art?" Would you like to actually awaken your love of learning about this topic? You can, simply by reading the teacher's questions and then, by asking yourself, "what questions did these words just provoke in me?"

"What Blocks Peoples' Ability to Make Art?"

Teacher's Questions (asked by Austin)

I feel my pencil dance around the page of my sketchbook creating lines that my eyes trace. My hands sing as the form of a person, the folded collar of their shirt, and the zig zag shape of their hair emerges upon the page.

I look at a piece of paper, or a collection of photos and paint textures that I made and can imagine creating an image. I move images around a surface and play with colors and shapes to until I have an emergence. When I am amazed at what I see, (hopefully) then I know the picture is done.

A block around art that I hear often is "it doesn't look right."

As far as your topic, I could probably ask a million questions. I, for one, can not picture myself drawing successfully whether it be with pencil, paint or charcoal. I would guess I have a few blocks around creating art. My questions are:

[1] I have seen the Bernie Book, and am sure on a financial planning level it works. As an artist why did you choose to not draw faces on the people in the book?

[2] The lack of faces in the Bernie Book disturbs me. Does this happen because I can't picture a face in its place? Does that mean I have a block about drawings of faces? Or a block about drawings missing faces?

[3] When I was in first grade I remember sitting next to another student named John. I was amazed at how well he drew. Although all we used were crayons, he drew as well as an adult. He had incredible fine motor skills. As I watched what created I looked and compared his work to my drawing. I could not understand how he created such images, or how he developed his talent or eye for colors. Was he born with this talent? Were they gifts? Was he somehow taught? Can a person such as me learn to draw? Do I need t heal my injuries around drawing to be a better artist? Can I ever be as talented as that classmate John? Or as talented as Austin Shaw?