Andre's art attack!

Typically in primary school, art lessons are nothing to shout about. When the period is not being cannibalised for some other academic subject, it's usually filled with simple drawings or crafts that wouldn't inspire any Picasso wanna-bes.

Sorry for being so cynical but based on the art works that my kids have brought home over the years, I can see that things haven't really changed since I was in primary school. Can't really blame the school, in the Singapore primary education system, art is considered one of those peripheral subjects that don't even have its own dedicated teachers. Usually the teacher taking art happens to also be a form teacher or subject teacher that has been allocated an extra duty (same with music).

Anyway, I was expecting art this year to be pretty much the same as every year's (read: nondescript) until Andre brought this drawing (on the right) home after his first art lesson.

It was in his art file and at first glance, I thought it was a print-out and he had merely coloured it in, until I took a closer look and realised it was drawn.

From what I gather, Andre's art teacher had let his class watch a video on the computer which showed them how to draw this face step by step, using lines and shapes. He used a pencil first and drew over the lines with a marker later.

I know there are many doodle champs in Singapore so this is probably nothing to them, but I thought it was quite a good effort since Andre is no Einstein (the cartoonist, not the genius although he's not that either).

The following week, he came home with this:

Another cartoon! I was beginning to suspect that his art teacher (who's actually a science teacher) had no idea how to teach art and just hit on this winning method to engage the kids. I think my suspicion was correct because the following week, he produced this:

Hahaha! I just had to laugh as I wondered if Andre would be drawing cartoons the whole year round. Art educators will probably be appalled but you know, I notice that Andre is actually enjoying his art lessons now, unlike in the past three years. Granted it doesn't teach anything about art technique since he's probably just copying the steps in the guide but hey, art should first and foremost be fun, right? In this respect, the class is a-ok by me.

G-R-R-R!!