Art of Living

How do we make sense of life? How do we thrive at living? Big questions like these require time and space for adolescents to ponder. They have that ability in the new year-long Health & Wellness/Arts crossover course, Art of Living, which launched this fall for ninth graders at Sacred Heart Prep (SHP).

 

The course teaches principles of art while exploring what it means to be physically, socially, spiritually, and mentally healthy. Creative assignments range from drawing and painting, to photography and movement art, while topics include community, identity, adolescent development, conformity, substance use, and sexual health.

 

The brainchild of SHP fine arts teacher Lauren Benjamin, who is best known as SHP’s dance instructor but is also credentialed in visual arts, Art of Living springs from last year’s semester-long Health & Wellness course, which Benjamin also taught; the course was originally added to SHP’s offerings through the work of Health & Wellness program director Monika Nagy. A “serendipitous” space in the schedule due to a colleague’s maternity leave this year allowed Benjamin to design and propose the new course over the summer and fill the gap.

 

“I’ve always been interested in teaching art from the perspective of life skills integration,” said Benjamin. “Teaching students the habits of mind that we cultivate within the creative process, and how they’re readily applicable to other areas of life: reflective learning, critical thinking, visual literacy—those things have always been important to me as an art teacher.”

 

On one recent afternoon in the Art of Living class, students began in a circle, sharing something they had received, or something they had given, whether it was making someone laugh or receiving the gift of a snack from another classmate. They were effectively practicing MSMO, which stands for “monitor self, monitor others,” a framework that prompts students to be aware of thoughts, feelings, and actions.

 

Later in the same class, as they walked around the room to quietly observe and leave written peer critiques on each others’ artwork, they utilized another framework: See, Think, Wonder, which focuses on how to interpret artwork. The artwork displayed in class was from an assignment in which students were asked to visually represent an emotion using the elements of art and design, then show how they had practiced monitoring self in a written reflection.

 

Another skillset students are developing this semester is "Studio Habits of Mind," a thinking framework developed by Harvard researchers which identified eight habits of mind that students learn while engaged in art: develop craft, express, envision, engage and persist, stretch and explore, observe, reflect, and understand the art world.

 

“I believe these habits speak to life skills, and they also teach an understanding of process,” said Benjamin. “It gives students an opportunity to engage with their process and identify stages within it.”

 

For Benjamin, her hope is Art of Living could be a model for other disciplines to explore arts integration in the classroom at SHP.

 

“Crossover courses are really important. To just silo your intellect into one subject area doesn’t serve you. We operate in the world as holistic thinkers, so it’s important to see how things are actually connected—to see how music and math and dance connect, and how science and art connect,” said Benjamin.

 

“We live in a culture where it’s important to be a creator and an innovator, and to be able to think through the process of an innovator. My goal is to expose students to a process in which they can think critically, read the world around them, and express themselves while doing it.”