Reminds me of Freshman Art History at CSU when we only had to remember the artist, the name of the work and the year it was produced. No, nothing about the context in which the work was created or the culture of the country and the era. The first test was a total shocker. I think I got a D. It would've been a boon for Rainman and Aspies who get off on that trivia date stuff. This is probably one of the underlying roots of all my anxiety dreams about not studying for tests. I pulled my grade up to an A for the second semester, but only after cramming to remember useless and irrelevant trivia that I soon forgot after the test. That's what fact- and data-based tests do, make you forget after you no longer need the data--unless you have Asperger's and you thrive on that--but for us Neurotypes we want to go beyond: "32. Artist: Max Benkelman; Title: "Sunflowers in Evening with Farmhand"; Country: Germany; Year: 1927; Genre: German Expressionism. In fact, I don't even think in my class we had the Genre or Country. The instructor didn't care that you studied--as well as a freshman could study given the reading material that was given for the course--about German Expressionism, or Max himself and that he soon emigrated from Germany to the United States, Southwestern Nebraska, specifically, where he set up the Sunflower Institute that was sort of like a Van Gogh cult for suicidal artists. No one cared that Max's fixation on Sunflowers was obsessive to the point that he painted nothing else, not even starry nights. No one cared about how colorless Max's paintings became throughout his years until finally his canvasses were nothing but thick black paint. No, there was no context back in Freshman Art History.
(Sound of current and former art and art history students Googling Max Benkelman because they can't remember studying him in class).
I didn't think about it then, but now I realize it was probably so that the TAs could grade the papers easier since there were hundreds of people in these classes. Wouldn't want a TA to have to mull over essay answers and different TAs give different marks for similar responses.
Why not simply give multiple choice, for that matter? That'd make it even easier and the university could forgo employing TAs as test graders altogether and implement the tests with the number 2 pencil where you fill in the circles and have a computer read it?
I never met a TA that didn't feel a sense of entitlement. Grrr.
So, if I say the work was created in 1788 but the work was actually created in 1787, does that make me every bit as wrong as the bozo who said it was created in 1632? Yup, according to the way Art History 101 is graded.
Labels: Art, This Boring Life
6 Comments:
Too true. Rote memorization is rooted in sheer laziness by the educators. It is much easier to grade a date than a persuasive argument.
Asian cultures (those with ties to Confucianism) are experiencing big problems in their educational systems due to the emphasis on rote memorization. You have to *think* to innovate....
I think memorization is an important thing to learn in lower grade levels - but in higher education the essay should rule... I suppose all of the fluffy disney witch teachers who teach 3rd grade would yell at me that memorization is wrong and all of the kids need to sit in circles and talk about nothing instead - wouldn't want to stress out any young minds with memorizing math.
I love Max Benkelman - he is the best of the best. I love German Expressionism and it had a huge influence on me in the CSU days.
Thanks for your comment, Chad. I can see where we would think it would be laziness that is preventing the instructors from giving more in-depth exams, yet I think there is something else going on. I can't speak for the Asian education system, but I know that the profs at the Unis I've been to don't exactly have a lot of slack-time in their schedules. (say what? Ann's standing up for university professors? what's the world become?) They're booked full with classroom instruction 2-3 days a week and in the other 2-3 days they have to schedule one-on-one meetings with students, meetings with other faculty and administrators, and are expected to publish (or perish) plus prepare for lectures and grade the papers of higher-level exams (not the entry-level freshmen exams). That's not to excuse enormous 200K+ salaries some receive which is based more on prestige than actual workload. But my point is is that yes, those easy-grading entry-level exams may appear to be given out of laziness on the instructor's part, but there's no infrastructure in place to support giving essay-questions to classes of 300 freshmen. The solution would be to either hire more professors to lessen the workload or hire more Graduate-level TAs who would be qualified to grade essay questions, but of course the obvious obstacle is $$ and funding and there's really no way around that issue because if one Uni takes away enormous administration overhead $$ or lessens the prestigious salaries so that more TAs can be hired, or cuts the enormous sports budget and gives $$ to arts, letters and sciences instead, then those displaced prestigious athletic administrators (for a lack of a better collective word) would simply go on to another university. The our little egalitarian liberal arts college becomes known for being run poorly, low wages, no-name professors and no sports program. Actually it sounds rather charming to me, but it probably wouldn't last in the real world, either as a state-supported institution or a private college. It's the almighty dollar that has the final say, sad but true.
But those silly exams do give us some good laughs along the way and stories to tell throughout our years.
Stan, would you consider Max Benkelman proto-goth?
I think proto-goth and also proto-minimalism in the way the sunflower paintings gradually became all black. I think he mostly painted dead sunflower, especially towards the end of his life as he sunk deeper and deeper into his own world of delusions and despair.
Gothic minimalism. I like it. Well, sort of. It all sort of seems old and tired now, doesn't it? And a bit too obvious.
Visual art is getting rather old to me too. i want to paint with scents now.
I'm very excited by your smell direction and I think you are going to enjoy doing this more than actually making paintings. Sometimes I think about making paintings and I imagine them as I'm making them. Then I look at what I've painted in my mind and I feel like the paintings look dull. Maybe I'm not ready to try this sort of thing - in the mean time I'm very happy working on my web site.
I love our Max story because it is so silly, but also like so many real artists - in at least the way they see themselves as artists.
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