Tim Rollins and K.O.S.

I just wanted to make a point to mention Tim Rollins and K.O.S.. I see it as a modest ideal to aspire to (and possibly beyond) in art teaching. It more or less sums up some of the most pertinent aspects of teaching art. Not so much the, 'community' aspect (however important), but just taking students with the interest and doing something with it.

School, in general, just seems so regimented. All the organizational elements are overly stressed. There appears so little room for discovery. It's discovery on a schedule. It's a far distance from the image of Aristotle wandering around a meadow with a student and just discussing things as they strolled.

I honestly don't remember where I got that idea about how Aristotle taught. I did find this on wikipedia about the, "Socratic Method" though. Specifically, on lesson planning for teachers. Frankly, I did't think the Socratic method even mentioned lesson planning so explicitly, but it is wikipedia so take it for what it's worth...

Planning methodology

• Plan and build the main course of thought through the lessons.

• Build in potential fallacies (errors) for discovery and discussion.

• Know common fallacies.

• It may help to start or check with the conclusion and work backwards.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, Tim Rollins, "Art and Knowledge Workshop" is just that. It's an after school workshop for interested students. Maybe Rollins had friends, or connections or something to get them gallery acclaim. I'm not sure. But a workshop strikes me as a great place to just kick back and break out of the often over-structured school environment and just see where things go. Structure is important, don't get me wrong, but a workshop like this can give some temporal room for discovers to happen.