3/27

Today I asked Mr. R if he teaches about other cultures. He said of course he does because art is a product of culture, however he tries to avoid doing projects that mimic or mock cultural traditions, such as creating a paper kimono, african masks etc... because he feels that because we are not a part of that culture we do not understand these items significance and are not respecting the cultures they come from. I never really thought about things in that way until now, but after hearing it, it does make a lot of sense. Especially when we have not experienced or do not have an in-depth knowledge of culturally relevant practices, should we really be teaching them? Yes it is important to present the information and perhaps a project with adaptations but to use another cultures symbols in a way that we do not fully understand is to mock rather than pay homage to that culture.

The rules in Mr. R's classroom are not posted but they are laid out in the syllabus and students are frequently reminded of the procedures and expectations them in the classroom. With every project new safety rules are introduced. Because of the high-expectations Mr. R sets in his classroom there is not a lot of disciplinary problems. Although it seemed that a handful of students were off-task Mr. R tried to redirect in a guiding way rather than a malicious way, but if they chose not to get back to work Mr. R would allow them to stay off-task and deal with the natural consequences of not completing the project on time and receiving a poor grade because of it.