Art & Attention

I'm at a coffee shop across from my cat-sitting gig this Saturday morning.
I've been looking online for projects for the student I attend art class with. The art teacher is a great person--he creates a welcoming classroom. But he seemingly has no knowledge of autism, and he's not researching for this new student in his class... so I will.

Fair enough, I guess? I don't know. Is it my job as an assistant to teach the subject to the autistic students in gen-ed classes? Maybe not, but I expect it's quite common that it turns out that way.

I. "Think Different" is not just a slogan

I have to think differently with this student-- not so much in words & ideas.
These abstract concepts the teacher uses might be fine for some of the autistic students--every autistic person is different--but my student doesn't respond at all to talk about things such as negative space and complementary colors.

Luckily I am more than happy to mess around with art.
I love it, and I was sad that this week the student said  that he wants to drop art (he keeps trying and rejecting different classes in this time slot). The lead special-ed teacher told him that he has to stay, though--the school year runs only 8 more weeks.

I'm happy to be in Art, and naturally I want the student to be happy in some way too. What is that for him?

Below, here's some student art.
LEFT: The art student randomly carved a linoleum-block, reluctantly pulled one print (this one), and then said, "I'm done."
OK, then.
I think it's gorgeous, but he showed no interest in it.

Above RIGHT: The name of my bear for a print--Sidney Bearchet--hand-lettered at my request by a different student--the one who made me the birthday card with googly eyes.
I LOVE this kid's handwriting!!!
It is genius graphic design--he doesn't think about words as units the way I do--he breaks them up,  runs them together, and varies letter size and capitalization according to his own rubric.

On Monday I'm going to see if my art student likes mixing food coloring into glue. I looked up how, since he likes squeezing the glue out. He can try painting that way.

Yesterday he was very mad and sad.
He asked in another class if we could watch Inside Out --the Pixar movie about emotions depicted as characters.  I've said that we watch too many movies, but this student choice was brilliant! He talked about it the whole way through and felt much better afterward.
And I liked the movie too--I'd seen it when it came out (2015) and hadn't been personally moved, but watching it with young teens? BINGO!

The emotion characters, Joy, Sadness, Anger, etc. all have colors--and are sometimes simply depicted as balls. I'll suggest the student paint them in glue colors....

 

A teachers' discussion board helped me think about How To THINK about art-making with autistic students:
proteacher.net/discussions/threads/art-activities-for-autistic-children.5524

Most helpful idea:
separate the process and the product.

Plan on two levels:
for the student's experience--their free expression,
and, separately, for the experience of the viewer--that is, you, the neurotypical students, and other adults (parents, teachers):

And, excellent advice:
work for small amounts of time, and give regular breaks.
I've figured out the student is happier if we work for the first half of class and take a walk outside for the second half.

II. Stay Golden

Also, people in the art-discussion board kept saying:
you're making a difference/helping, even if it doesn't seem so.
I choose to believe this is so. After all, with any teenager, you might not get much positive feedback.
I'm not looking to them for emotional validation. I do watch for signs that what I'm doing is working (or not--failures are clearer).

It's more like going on Faith. I sense that the students need Love as much as (or more than) anything.
I don't mean a soupy goop of emotion, I mean paying attention to them, and showing you believe in them--believe that they are good, and capable, even if (especially if?) that's not obvious.

Example from this week:

One of the snarkiest teenage girls in special-ed English class (she's not autistic, I don't know what her diagnosis is) mentioned that she is a Taurus. She is one of my favorites--smart and funny and struggling with being regularly "emotionally dysregulated".
The teacher is always coming down on her know for being out of line, which I don't think is helping.

Anyway, this day the student was calling herself the bad things associated with the sign of Taurus--stubborn.

I said, "Well, that's one way of looking at it. I'd say you are STRONG! Tauruses are strong. Also, maybe you don't know, but Tauruses love BEAUTY, and I see that in you."

"How?" she said, looking at me all hostile-like . . . and eager to hear.

"You show it," I said. "Like, those beautiful gold hoop earrings you're wearing today."

"I gotta have my jewelry", she said.

"There ya go," I said. "That's Taurus!"

I don't know if jewelry is specifically Taurus (beauty is)--but astrology works as a conveyor of attention, seeing... Love.

And Love creates space, openings, and you gotta have space if you want to learn or teach. There has to be some receptivity, some chinks in the wall, not a slick, closed surface.
Look for where the light shines through... or doesn't.
_________________

I heard the saying that students don't learn from teachers they don't like.
I'm seeing how that can go. It's like some students have the superpower to BLOCK a teacher in person as effectively as if they'd blocked her on social media.

I was helping a student analyze some song lyrics. They were supposed to compare them to something, so I suggested they compare the girl singing about love to Juliet.

"Who's Juliet?" they asked.

"You know, the girl in Romeo and Juliet that we just read" (for FIVE long weeks).

"I never want to hear that name again," the student said.

Yeah, honestly, me neither.

________________

For myself, this weekend I'm going to try printing at home my first two Bear Holy Cards lino-cuts. The class is printing theirs with acrylic paint, and I am not getting good results. (Neither are most of the students, but that's what's available.)

A bottle of printing ink came with the lino kit I bought last year--I'll try that.
I want these cards to work---I enjoy cutting the lino, and I love the idea of reproducible art that is not digital.
Keep Trying, Ponyboy!