St. Nicholas and The Angry Parents: Teaching Art or Religion
Fra Angelico (1387-1455)
Episodes from the Life of St Nicholas:
Birth, Vocation and Gift to Three Poor
Young Girls
Circa 1437, tempera and gold on
wood, 35 x 61,5 cm
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome – Vatican
Museums, Vatican City
Who could guess that teaching about Fra Angelico's painting, "Gift to the Three Poor Young Girls", could create so much uproar?
Every St. Nicholas Day, I momentarily tremble remembering an email sent to me by an upset parent about my teaching this painting in art class. I've had several such encounters in my years of teaching art. As careful and politically correct we try to be, someone always seems to be offended. I've had parents charge in my room telling me what I teach is "not the true God" when we studied a statue of Shiva; a phone call telling me that the Ancient Greek gods on Olympus or the Egyptian gods in Books of the Dead were not appropriate because they were not Christian, or that learning to draw proportions from a life-size skeleton was sacrilegious.
Great art is, by its essence, spiritual. When we look at history, we can't disconnect religious beliefs throughout the world. Our religious beliefs, however different they may be, are part of the human experience and therefore part of our history. But, they also divide us. As teachers, we don't make judgments about beliefs nor do we speak on a pulpit.
We teach art- not religion. Do you have any insights on the topic of Religion in Art?
For a good laugh, here is an article about teaching Dia de Los Muertos from The New Yorker. It's my "gold coin" I'm tossing to you. Happy St. Nicholas Day!
-Jo-Anne Kirkman
I also had an upset parent when I used Saint Nicholas art images because I explained that he was the inspiration for the images of Santa Claus who has lots of similar qualities such as generosity, love for children, and selfishness.... Since Saint Nicholas lived so long ago the knowledge transfer to the student was that Santa lived a long time ago (and therefore not in the present time).
Posted by: Beverly Cornell | December 06, 2011 at 04:18 PM
Loved reading this and I have a lot I would love to talk with you about as I am working on my dissertation, "Art with Purpose" where I am researching service learning activities, faith based learning and character education. My paper is a/r/tology / art based research and I have learned a lot thus far. I spent last year in the religion department at UGA. Again, I would love to chat! And the "Day of the Dead" article was hilarious!
And btw: My first principle had me hot glue a fig leaf to my Michelangelo umbrella center - now there's another funny story!
All the best -
Debi West
dewestudio@bellsouth.net
Posted by: Debi West | December 06, 2011 at 06:36 PM
Ooops - princiPAL!
Posted by: Debi West | December 06, 2011 at 06:37 PM
Hi Jo-anne! You should connect with the Caucus for the Spiritual in Art Education.
Posted by: Lorraine Poling | December 06, 2011 at 10:15 PM
Hello Jo-Anne! I am an elementary art teacher in a small town and I have taught several holiday related projects to teach these past few weeks before the winter break.
It seems the level of anger is coming from my students, not the parents.I have had a couple of children inform me that they are Jehovah's Witness and can not create any of the "christmas" artwork. The other students in class were outraged. They just could not understand why their classmate, did not celebrate Christmas, or any other holidays. So in appreciation of diversity, as well as putting an end to the student's desire to speak out against it, I took a few minutes of our art lesson to explain that we are all different, with different beliefs, and that is ok.
Posted by: Katrina Hampton | December 08, 2011 at 12:03 AM
"Gift to the Three Poor Young Girls", could create so much uproar?
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