Deirdra Stockmann: More than just fish

Fish. Every year we did some kind of fish project. Paper mache fish, fish mobiles, origami fish, fish drawn with wax crayon and washed with watercolors.

By sixth grade we were a little critical of our art teacher's creativity and suspicious of her fetish for fish.

Through all the marine life, and other projects, art was part of school and our lives. We had at least an hour a week, maybe two. It was a break from the classroom, but it was an experience in itself. We were small, and the art room was huge, the supply cabinet cavernous and full of creative opportunities.

Every week, for seven years of elementary school, we went to the same art room, saw the same teacher and made lots of fish, among many other things. We walked proudly through the halls of our school adorned with our own works of fine art.

As my world expanded beyond the muralled walls of that neighborhood elementary school, I have come to understand what was only implicit when I was younger: it is really not about the fish. It is about the opportunity for expression and to communicate with another part of our brain. Every person, if given the freedom to create, can find a positive way to channel their energy.

Many teachers in schools without arts programs bend over backwards to integrate art projects into the rigidly prescribed daily curriculum. Somewhere between mandated literacy time and test preparation, teachers sneak in some recycled materials for some less-structured time for creativity.

With so many pressures imposed from every level of administration to address standards and teach test-taking skills, creative arts fall to the bottom of most classroom priority lists. After all, we don't test art.

Sadly, in today's system, where we look to the tests to tell us what is "important," creating a standard and an assessment to go along with it seems the only way to validate a learning experience.

So, many teachers and students are left to walk through bare cinderblock halls. They do not feel pride in the work that only occasionally adorns them -- instead they tear down the rare exhibitions. They are not empowered with the sense that they can express their feelings, experiences, desires and visions of the world.

Two years ago, a team of Penn undergraduates created Expressions, an after school program designed to provide local kids with creative outlets for their expressive energy. Starting with a group of 10 kids who came every day, the founding members partnered with a local pastor to share space for the after school program.

Just a few months ago, evidence of the urgent demand for the arts in West Philadelphia, the YMCA on 52nd Street came to Penn asking for help developing a creative enrichment program. Ready to take the initiative to a new level, Expressions is now flourishing in the larger space and sharing the resources the Y has provided with 40 kids.

What is most amazing and potentially powerful about art is that, with very little money in almost any space, everyone can succeed. And not because they make the prettiest fish, but because they have released a part of them that might have been trapped otherwise. Kids are naturally full of creative energy. It is only when it is socialized out of them, when they become desensitized with the standardized testing mentality that they begin to say and think things like "I am not an artist" or simply, "I can't."

It is not about feeling bad for under-privileged kids who do not have the art program their middle class school counterparts have. It is about a basic human need -- the need for creative expression. All humans have energy to create and contribute to society. When society does not provide adequate avenues for the positive transmission of such energy, it bears costs that far exceed even any arts budget.

Today, the schools alone cannot provide sufficient outlets for creative expression due to other more immediate constraints. There is no doubt that this systemic problem cripples our society alienating countless members by ignorantly limiting what forms of expression are considered meaningful and worthwhile. While this trend will take years to reverse, the first step is creating programs that generate broader support through addressing the immediate need -- communities starving for positive expression.

Expressions is an excellent example of undergraduates recognizing this social need and taking action. When more Penn students, the University and the community come together to support initiatives like these, and create new ones, they will begin to change society's priorities for a better, more expressive future.

And, eventually everyone will feel confident and empowered in their ability to make some kind of fish.

Deirdra Stockmann is a senior Politics, Philosophy, and Economics major from Oak Park, Il.

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