July 16

July 16  Rader pp. 61-70 (Chapter 2); Lampert pp. 110-34 (Chapters 11 & 12)

Andrea posted a question as to why so many of our toys are white. If you haven't seen a toy aisle in awhile, head to a local toy department and look at army and cowboy and Indian toys. Quite awful the state of toys. I am hoping that everybody is googling the sites people offer. Did anyone get a chance to google the Edgar Heap of Birds Indian suggestion?

I am also struck by what everybody is noticing about the readings as opposed to what I notice; probably a generational thing--but I look forward to your viewpoints.

July 15

July 15  Rader pp. 51-60 (Chapter 2); Lampert pp. 86-109 (Chapters 9 & 10)

Great insights on posts. Daniel, sorry about the name thing. Don't know why I did that. As for project ideas--all great--even if you don't know. (I know I would be clueless at this point.) And remember, your project can be a work-in-progress. DO something that interests you--not just for the class. What are you really interested in doing?

Lynn, great idea. Even though the event happens after the class, show us your planning on the blog; give us histories and context; why you are doing it; why it's important to you; so we can check on the results--even if it's months away; a good idea is a good idea. Andrea, simply interviewing your Grandmother or photos--may be used at a later date--so you end up with historic and archival interviews and photos--a great start to something in the future. Melanie, following the graffiti artists on themes of abduction and abuse sounds intriguing. You can begin to lay all of that out and why you are interested on a blog. Daniel, radio broadcasting is a great idea. Love all of the ideas. Only do them if you are truly interested in them. 

Andrea posted about reading the histories of common folk. In many ways it is so refreshing knowing that regular people stood up for many important issues and against abuses. 

July 14

Rader pp. 41-50 (End of Chapter 1/Beg. Chapter 2); Lampert pp. 60-85 (Chapters 7 & 8)

Thanks for that first great week again. I am glad you are enjoying the stories. More to come.

Her are some comments on Friday's posts. Lynn, I was referring to President Andrew Johnson about being white supremacist. But thanks for the connection to LBJ--also involved with important civil rights legislation. Melanie, you asked if letters can be art. In my opinion, word press is art. Google Dirk Fowler, one of our communication design faculty--he makes posters with word press--very big. Also, google www.woodtype.org  That's the Hamilton Wood Type Museum site that is in Two Rivers, WI--the sister city of Manitowoc on the shores of Lake Michigan. Andrea posted about lies/misinformation. Below is an online excerpt from James Loewen's book Lies My Teacher Told Me:

Americans have lost touch with their history, and in this thought-provoking book, Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying twelve leading high school American history texts, he has concluded that not one does a decent job of making history interesting or memorable. Marred by an embarrassing combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies, these books omit almost all the ambiguity, passion, conflict, and drama from our past. In ten powerful chapters, Loewen reveals that:

The United States dropped three times as many tons of explosives in Vietman as it dropped in all theaters of World War II, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Ponce de Leon went to Florida mainly to capture Native Americans as slaves for Hispaniola, not to find the mythical fountain of youth

Woodrow Wilson, known as a progressive leader, was in fact a white supremacist who personally vetoed a clause on racial equality in the Covenant of the League of Nations

The first colony to legalize slavery was not Virginia but Massachusetts

From the truth about Columbus's historic voyages to an honest evaluation of our national leaders, Loewen revives our history, restoring to it the vitality and relevance it truly possesses.

Also google Howard Zinn's The People's History of The United States--it's a really great read as is The Young People's History of The United States. 

Lynn posted how intent matters. Tyler posted about not ever learning/hearing about the Alcatraz event in school. The two films I was talking about are Smoke Signals and The Business of Fancydancing. I noticed I  am making typos. Sorry about that. I will try to watch that more carefully. 

July 11

July 11  Rader pp. 31-40 (Chapter 1); Lampert pp. 39-59 (Chapters 5 & 6)

Thanks for your responses yesterday. We are developing a rhythm of posts. And that's how the class works--"I" language and posting observations, questions, comments, etc. 

A few notes about yesterday's posts. Lisa posted about the truth in photography. I always assumed a photo couldn't lie. Everything about a photo seems to be more about the taker than the taken. Melanie, thanks for the extended alphabet. Wow-creating an alphabet could be an example of a personal or professional semester project. (I will always be tossing out project ideas in the first two weeks.) I will say one thing about the histories I've read so far--they really come alive. I am interested as I read. History is made dull for so many people but these two writers have ways of engaging me. If you go back to yesterday's blog, you will see "Post marker" endings to sections. That's for me just in case someone posts make up posts not in the current day--I can quickly located them. Melanie referred to gangs. can country clubs be considered gang like? Andrea questioned about administrators with Turkish backgrounds. Lots of art history in Turkey--architecture, murals, mosques, churches, ruins…lots of cultural tourism. Maybe an art unit on contemporary Turkey? Historic Turkey? Andrea, yes I visited the Uprising Museum for an entire afternoon. I also got to see the remnant of the Warsaw Ghetto Wall and other surprising things. My hotel was ten feet from the Presidential Palace. Space is different in Europe. Poland is emerging as a country and still trying to find itself. Culturally and religiously it is very conservative. 

A reminder about the readings. Next week our pattern continues--ten pages from radar's book and two chapters from Lampert's. But the following week it's just ten pages from Rader's book and one chapter from Lampert. That should give you plenty of time to think about a blogger project. By blogger I mean you will upload your project to blogger. All of us will be reading each other's projects (unless your project is extremely personal and you only want me to view it--otherwise, we will all look at each other's and comment on them as part of the final. 

Warsaw Uprising Example

When we visited in 2009, the P/W image above the men, in Polish stands for the Warsaw Uprising, were all over the city. From August 1 to October 2, 1944 resistance fighters and others battled German occupiers for 63 days. Russian troops were in Warsaw on the other/east side of the Vistula River in a section of Warsaw called Praga. (See Warsawuprising.com) Over the course of 63 days, the resistance was crushed. Ten of thousands are dead. The Germans execute an additional 100,000 Warsaw citizens. All the rest had to vacate Warsaw as Hitler decided to level the city. All the time the Russians watched. Those P/W markers and monuments are all over Warsaw where people died or were summarily executed. Google Warsaw Uprising Museum. Using terminology from our books, Warsaw memorializes, teaches, and makes places for their dead/ghosts/memories and the struggles for freedom under Nazi occupation. It was quite traumatizing to see all of the memorials to their dead--and my dead as I am Polish-American. It was quite sobering and sad to learn about those histories. We visited the Uprising Museum and all of the artifacts and stories--we cried. It is a very large museum and gets the impact of war/death/suffering/annihilation across quite effectively. Was simply horrific viewing that history. (The photo was taken off web--a 68th anniversary reenactment.)

July 10

July 10  Rader pp. 21-30 (Chapter 1); Lampert pp. 22-38 (Chapters 3 & 4)

First off, thanks for your wonderful introductions. I made a mistake yesterday and only covered pages 1-10 in the Rader book. Sorry about that. I will cover 11-20 and 21-30 in todays comments. Please keep in mind that I expect a minimum of four responses each day. That means if there are four questions you can respond one or more times to each; or you can respond twice to two questions. 

Here are some comments on yesterday's posts. andrea stated how important the power of story-telling is, especially in many of our family settings. And yet, it really doesn't garner much support as a legitimate way to construct and "keep" histories. One thought I had was what can we take away as art teachers or museum educators from these readings in terms of how we could better democratize "classroom management" issues? Rather than one teacher disciplining, for example, what if there were others in the class that took part--I am thinking more of self-regulation/self-control, etc. Melanie brought up a great question Why didn't they teach us all of the facts? Sort of related to visual art never getting stories correct. Tyler posted about my question alluding to fear. My fear and learning question was questioning possibly what happens when new information calls into question core beliefs, ways I have been taught are facts? White ways of knowing and knowledge, for example. The histories presented are very appealing to me and I am glad many of you are feeling the same. We are currently reading two chapters from the Lampert book. That will change in a week to only one to give you time to think about a semester project. And plan. That project can be a thinning one--an idea or ideation or a plan for something. We really don't have time to create, though if you do, for example, put together a series of watercolors or collages that help you think further through some of these issues, that can work. The project is wide open to allow you incorporate your strengths and interests, however tied to the material--you will determine that. 

And remember, any late posts, just post in our current day--and let us know they are for the previous day/s. Thanks. 

July 9

Rader pp. 1-20 (Prologue and begin Chapter 1); Lampert pp. 1-21 (Chapters 1 & 2)

Welcome to our two books. Though both books are academic in nature, so far, the People's Art History book is reading fairly easily for me; whereas the Rader book is reading fairly academically--but both have incredible insights in histories normally ignored. I will be posting four questions each day. Remember that you need to post a minimum of four times a day. Also keep in mind that as we are reading these alternative activist histories, be thinking about our relationship to this new material--what you learned about these groups or issues, and now the possibilities (or our responsibilities) for us as educators/artists/curators to do something with this newer information. What are our concerns, limits, dangers, etc?