day 96

"Ms. Haley, in art N told me that I kissed C. I told him, that's nasty."

I actually had to turn away as I regained my composure.

overheard today

As I walked by a classroom filled with Kindergartners who were being supervised by a staff member:

"Ok, two plus three is...?

STOP USING YOUR HANDS. WE DON'T USE OUR FINGERS TO SOLVE MATH PROBLEMS!"

The fourth grader in me who struggled with math and used her hands wanted to physically harm this person. The developmental psychologist in me died a little inside.

day 75

"So if the small hand is pointing to the 5 and the big hand is pointing to the 12, what time is it?"

"When I was a baby I used to think walls were made of gold. And I would stick magnets on my head."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, like a girl."

"Ms. Haley, you're the smartest teacher I've ever met."

Maybe you're a suck-up, but I'll take it.

"Ms. Haley, I'm feeling very agitated at you."

Says K (who pulls her uniform tights every day until they rip) while she fiddles, fingers entangled, with her now-shredded tights, "Ms. Haley, can you make this hole go away?"

"No K, but if you stop pulling on it, it won't get too much worse."

"My momma says she's gonna whoop me if I come home with another hole in my tights."

good thing I don't teach middle school

[pointing to my armpit] ...Hey Ms. Haley, you got something on your shirt.

Did I mention my school is a toasty mass of cinder blocks?

the preface

It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.
When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself.
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless. 

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

true or false?

Michael Singer 1989-92 Untilted

One weakness of the present generation of curators is their subservience to artists. Because the artist made the work, he is not necessarily the sole judge of how it is best seen, or even what it means. Production and consumption (interpretation) are different acts.

Lawrence Alloway | "The Great Curatorial Dim-Out"

quote of the day

Sandbeck c. 1990 Twelve Part Vertical Construction  | Hirshhorn

"One should look at works of art without any intention of deriving knowledge, and rejoice if sometimes, as of itself, a confirmation or enrichment of our knowledge comes in a flash; and one should not approach them with the determination to solve a problem. One must let them speak, one must converse with them, but one must not interrogate them. To an inquisitor they refuse any information."

On Art and Connoisseurship | Max Friedlander