Thesis Writing

I'm on the verge of having the words to write the last part of the research section of my thesis. It should have been done by last Monday, but I didn't have the words then. I think I might now.

I'm not sure why this part has been so much more difficult for me. The first part was really general, a commentary of why art is beneficial to children in the classroom, and in what way art broadens the mind and teaches something the three "R's" cannot.

The second part was targeting a younger age group (like my group) and more specifically about play. A little more specific topic than "art", but still a general argument for play, referencing studies that have been done throughout the last century on the benefit of play.

My intention for the third, and last, section that I'm writing now is more specific, to give detail on WHY play is beneficial, what the children learn through play, and why it is a valid preschool curriculum. I am arguing that play, given the right materials and environment, can be MORE educational than teaching the alphabet and numbers to a three-year-old, without actually denouncing academic programs.

I don't want to start an argument with the rather large segment of the population that believes that if children learn their alphabet at three, they can learn to read at four, and be reading at a fifth grade level by six. Every child is different, and I'm sure there are some that flourish in this environment. I am trying to present an alternative to rushing children into something they may not be ready for, and explain why it is just as good, if not better, for the child to wait. And play.

This information is something I've searched for (although not ferociously), for the last three years or so. I've learned a lot about developmentally appropriate methods of teaching young children in the various child development classes I've taken since getting into this field. More compellingly, I've heard many experts with incredible credentials talk about the brain development in young children, and how they need certain experiences in order to develop the the ABILITY to read and write.

With all the time I've spent learning something that isn't readily available to the average parent, I'd like to write something FOR parents that easily and convincingly explains what I've learned, backed by "experts" that will hopefully balance out the peer pressure that parents get to have the best, smartest, most talented, exceptional student.

However, because I have specific goals in mind for this section, it seems more difficult to achieve just the right materials. I've been fishing around for a while at trying to explain the collection of evidence I've heard from many different sources without really being able to succinctly compile a compelling argument. It sounds so logical and clear when I hear it, but it somehow gets jumbled and incoherent when I try to pass it on.

I think that's why I've been having such a difficult time writing this section. I want it to be JUST SO, and am scared I won't be able to get across what I want to. Anyway, I'll never know until I try so I guess I should stop writing here, and beginning writing there!

I'm finally excited...

... about the possibilities in this master's program.

Let me back up. I don't know how much I've said about this program. It's a Master's in Education with an emphasis on Art in Education. Well, not being a teacher, nor having any interest in being a teacher, the education part of it was a dubious choice. But I am in childcare, and technically that is the educating of very young children, so although it's a stretch, it qualifies.

I do enjoy teaching/training, although not for school-aged kids. So, another justification for the program was the potential to use it to get into a corporate training position. I have worked in the software industry, and my first love, the reason for my undergraduate degree, was to implement and train corporations in the use of ERP software. I have done some of that in the past, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have a knack for getting into everyone's business, learning what they do, and applying it to the big picture of a company. An ERP system is a multi-module software for manufacturing firms that essentially centralize all the information from the various working departments of a company into a single database. The first time I went through an implementation it was amazingly fun to learn how to use every part of the software, apply that to what I knew of how every department worked, and then teach them how to best use the software to benefit the whole company.

So, I figured a master's in education would give me the necessary edge to get back into the corporate world after a 5-7 year hiatus in childcare.

The emphasis on art has been difficult. I am not an artist. I am not even a budding artist! I have no natural talent at any artistic thing. I have a logical, problem-solving mind that can be assigned a project and can try to figure out how to accomplish the solution. Which may (in the case of my quilting projects) be construed as artistic, but is actually mostly puzzle work and problem solving!

So when it came time to find a "pathway" for my thesis project, I was really scared. The options were: 1) myself as an artist developing/learning/journaling the acquisition of a new art form, 2) myself as an artist journaling/narrating how I apply this art in my classroom, 3) myself as a teacher developing a curriculum that incorporates art into the classroom, 4) myself as a teacher doing teacher research on how to collect and collate data to support curriculum change, or 5) advocacy.

We discussed these pathways on the first night of class. We discussed them again the first night of the second semester. We are now at the end of the second semester in a five semester program, and just now getting into what those pathways mean. I'm sure a large proportion of the class knew immediately what which pathway they were going to choose. After all, almost everyone in this cohort is a teacher, and at least twenty percent of those are art/music/drama/dance teachers.

Not being a teacher, nor an artist, I was very scared. Of the five pathways, all I could see as a possibility was advocacy. However, every time the discussion on pathways happened in class, the instructors would start with pathway one, work their way to five, then with all the interruptions and questions, by the time she'd get to five, it would be "advocacy is about trying to make a change in leadership or policy. There probably aren't many of you that would fall into this category." (So you see where their focus lies!)

So it's near the end of the semester (one week left!) and it's time to write the proposal for our thesis. The instructor has given me the go ahead on an idea to create a website, which I wrote according to her guidelines, but I have no idea what pathway it falls into. I'm assuming it's five, since none of the others apply to me.

Last night we presented our thesis proposals to a group of other students in our class. We separated by pathway, and there were surprisingly five other students taking pathway five. Two of the others are also creating websites. I am excited about this. After hearing their proposals, I am even more excited. They had some great ideas, and some of them are as far removed from "art in education" as mine! I think I finally found something to sink my teeth into.

I'm still not sure where the culmination of this degree will take me, but hopefully, with some of the ideas I heard last night, there might yet be a place for me with something I can be passionate about. There's hope.