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| Image painted by author after witnessing affects of school stress on children. |
The Hippocratic Oath states that practitioners of the medicinal arts do no harm. Practitioners of academic arts should heed a similar warning because they work with the organ of the mind, the brain. When academic practice is harmful, the neuronal activity within the brain short circuits or overloads, causing various injuries to the mind like anxiety, stress, anger and even trauma.
School boards and administrators from my experience have taken notice. Since Covid, there has been a significant increase in pull-out programs in US schools where targeted assistance, behavioral therapy, specialized instruction or other educational strategy is applied to children in order to ameliorate mental health challenges. I believe pullout programs do not go far enough. Despite this investment, a juvenile mental health crisis remains. Children should be in love with their school and be in love with their learning.
My concern is there is something innate within most K12 schools that negatively affect a child's wellbeing. Given that most schools in the US are mandated to perform non-consensual high stakes standardized testing activities on children, a strong possibility exists that a school's hidden curricula, one that rigidly narrows learning activities, values conformity, social hierarchies and regularly ignores children's individuality is the source of the problem.
My wish is that TAB art programs or choice-based art programs where individuality is central to the curriculum, would be available to every child attending K12 schools anywhere in the World. I believe TAB K12 art programs are important not only for benevolent childhood experience they provide, but also because they offer participants the opportunity to observe first hand the creative and intellectual uniqueness of fellow classmates inside the TAB studio.
TAB studio classrooms are dynamic learning environments unique in the history of K12 education. Inside these sites, children witness first hand the organic heterogeneity that exists within their world.
Unlike K12 programs where outcomes are standardized, TAB studio art education experiences offer children the possibility of developing their intellectual and creative powers on an individualized basis and in doing so enter into the phenomenological realm of sublimation, where negative thought and ideas generated by stress and anxiety are transformed into positive and socially acceptable outcomes.
Sublimation is a beneficent byproduct of authentic creative experience.
“I appreciate that this class does not grade me on what I memorize or how I do on tests." Kendra 16 (New Palestine H.S. 2018)
Artists throughout history have remarked on sublimations existence while developing creative work. Louise Bourgeois, Theaster Gates, Yayoi Kusama, Tracey Emin, Titus Kaphar, Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Jean Michel Basquiat, Annish Kapoor, George Baselitz, Edvard Munch and Jackson Pollock are among a long list of well known artists who point out through personal statements or critical analysis of their work, that a central tenant of their creative process is transforming repressed or painful impulses into artistic or aesthetic outcomes.
"When you're creative you're doing better than you are when you're not.” Jocelyn 8 (New Palestine Elementary School, 2010).
So the question for K12 educators, "Is sublimation a beneficent byproduct of children's authentic art experience and should it be?" My answer is absolutely yes. Students under our care deserve a curriculum that regularly addresses their lived experience. Quality learning experiences connect deeply with the past and present lives of the learner and their future aspirations.
In a TAB classroom, the child is the artist, the room is the child's studio and learning activities are guided by the question, "what do artists do?" If by channeling pain and anxiety to express what is on one's mind through artistic means is one of the ways "artists do what they do," then we may infer that sublimation is going to naturally occur.
Student, "When I was at my other school, being creative was especially frowned upon. It makes me mad. My art wasn't appreciated there." Matt 8, New Palestine Elementary (2009).
What TAB teachers avoid in their daily practice is forcing reflections or public disclosure, diagnosing children or interpreting student emotions. In other words, the TAB teacher does not practice art therapy. However, there can be doubt that authentic art experience is beneficent and beneficial to a child's well being.
"Freedom in your art can literally change a persons life." Lauren 16, New Palestine H.S. (2016)
The process of sublimation is there for children to experience as a byproduct of authentic creative experience. TAB art programs feature intellectual agency, processing of autobiographical interests and exploration of self-initiated ideas, materials and methods in the pursuit of one's own artistic interests. Children affected by toxic stress may reaffirm their intellectual capabilities and equilibrium in studio settings where abundant opportunities for personal expression through art making exist.
References:
Gaw, C. The Paradox of Art Programs Providing Autonomy and Choice 2024, J.A.E. rejected article
"Abstract Thinking and Beneficence: Tales from Inside the Visual Arts Studio" with Nick Stonehouse, Anqi Yang, Juanita McGarrigle, Susan C. Kim, Valentina Kranjec Rosenzweig and Clyde Gaw. EARCOS Triannual Journal Spr 2025 pg 56-58. https://issuu.com/earcosorg/docs/earcos_et_journal_spring_issue_2025
Gaw, C. Creativity and Benevolence: Teaching for Artistic Behavior Studio Experience, EARCOS Triannual Journal Winter 2025, pg 56-58 https://issuu.com/earcosorg/docs/winter-issue-2025
Gaw, C. Fralick, C. "I Got an Idea! Inside Communities of Studio Practice" 2020, Art Education Journal, https://www.arteducators.org/research/art-education-journal
Fralick, C., Gaw, C. https://blockspaperscissors.podbean.com/ 2017-present.
https://sites.google.com/view/clydegawstudio?usp=sharing