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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Mar 4, 2018 22:48:41 GMT
Thought this was a pea-worthy discussion.
The art teacher publicly posted a rant at an entire school grade worth of parents on Facebook last week.
Apparently, in October, the classes had made an art project. They were 8x10 paintings.
Teacher sent them home in early November. No notes with them.
Hadn't heard about them at all for the rest of November, any of December, January, or February.
First week of March - teacher wants them back, to display in an art show she is putting together at school.
Many (more than half, it sounds like), don't still have them and can't return them. Either trashed them, or put them in storage, or they were ruined accidentally, etc. Some painted over them.
Teacher is livid, has accused parents of not valuing her time or the artwork of their children.
This isn't my kid's grade, thankfully. So, I'm watching the circus from the sidelines. But man, what a crazy show.
My question to you: Do you think the teacher is right to assume that the art can and will be returned without previous notice that she would want it back?
(We are putting aside the unprofessionalness of ranting publicly via FB)
I feel that if she had wanted it for the art show, she should have kept it until the art show. Or at the very least, and still a risky choice, sent a note home stating that she'd want it back.
your thoughts?
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Post by Merge on Mar 4, 2018 22:52:02 GMT
Oh jeez. I would never send something home with students and expect to get it back. My kids have kept a select few projects in a "box of special things" over the years. The rest were trashed after an appropriate display time on the fridge.
Art teacher needs to get over herself.
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Post by 950nancy on Mar 4, 2018 22:52:08 GMT
There is no way that piece of art would have made its way back to the school. We kept artwork up for a few weeks and then it went bye-bye. Can you imagine trying to save all of that? She does not have the right to be angry. Well, she has the right to be angry, but I think that is crazy. Once it leaves the school, it is up to the student/parents to decide what to do with it.
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Post by esperanza on Mar 4, 2018 22:52:18 GMT
I save the nicer pieces, but once she sent them home it was fair game for families to do with it what they felt best.
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amom23
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,635 
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Post by amom23 on Mar 4, 2018 22:57:48 GMT
An artwork piece like that would have been saved in our house (at least for the remanding school year), but it's definitely unrealistic for the teacher to expect for all of them to come back to school several months later.
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johnnysmom
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Jun 25, 2014 21:16:33 GMT
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Post by johnnysmom on Mar 4, 2018 22:59:00 GMT
About 90% of all papers coming from school last about 5 minutes, of the remaining about 2/3 would last a few months until I clean the pile out at which time I may photograph them before tossing them. I keep a tiny amount of the stuff they bring home, I don't see much point in keeping a ton of it. She's crazy, IMO.
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Mar 4, 2018 23:03:50 GMT
Art teacher is totally delusional if she actually thought she'd get any of that artwork back, especially since she didn't bother to notify the parents that she would want it back. Is she a first year teacher? Doesn't sound like something an experienced teacher would do. That being said, if it had been my child, I would have indeed still had the artwork to send back. Last year I finally tossed the majority of DD's artwork and school papers. She is 30 and graduated from high school in 2006.  |
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Post by birukitty on Mar 4, 2018 23:42:07 GMT
I agree with everyone above. If art teacher wanted the art project back after sending it home she should have sent it home with a 81/2 x 11 white sheet of paper paper clipped to the front of it with big letters saying it needed to be saved because of a display for an art show in March. Better yet, she should have kept all of them at school. Once a teacher sends anything home it is up to the parents to decide what to do with it.
Sending it home with no instructions and then making a public rant about her livid feelings on how things turned out 4 months later on Facebook is unprofessional. I'm surprised the school hasn't punished her by giving her notice or making her apologize to the parents. Oh sorry-missed the part about putting this part of it aside.
Yes I think she was wrong about expecting the art back after 4 months because she sent it home without instructions or any kind of notice. What did she expect? For the parents to read her mind? She's got to be a first year teacher or a very inexperienced one.
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RosieKat
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PeaJect #12
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Post by RosieKat on Mar 4, 2018 23:42:18 GMT
I would have still had it, but been completely unable to find it.  (And I mean that seriously, not sarcastically!) |
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Post by padresfan619 on Mar 4, 2018 23:43:26 GMT
She’s a lunatic if she expects any art to survive after being taken home.
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Why
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Post by Why on Mar 4, 2018 23:48:26 GMT
She must be new  ..... |
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seaexplore
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Apr 25, 2015 23:57:30 GMT
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Post by seaexplore on Mar 4, 2018 23:50:47 GMT
Nutty teacher. Yes, we have every bit of art my DD has done (she's only in 1st grade) but most parents are much better than I am at cleaning out. I don't think it's realistic to expect parents to keep everything. Some have limited storage, some don't care, some won't even SEE the artwork because it won't even make it home. If a teacher wants something for future, the teacher needs to make sure they keep it!
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Post by hop2 on Mar 4, 2018 23:58:22 GMT
Embarrassingly there’s a 40% chance that if my child’s elementary school teacher sent a note home now I could send the project back in. And mine are both in college! A year ago I’d have given that a 60-70% chance but the kids started cleaning out last summer.
However, with no note sent home the teacher doesn’t hav a leg to stand on. Not to mention if the teacher sent the art home with the child there’s always the chance they ditched it before I got it if they hated it. Even with a note she was taking chances sending it home with the children. Things happen. Notes dissapear, artdudsaoears. Dogs eat stuff. Grandma adores it and takes it home with her. So many things can happen that if she wanted them for a show she made a mistake sending them home for several months.
Bad idea all around.
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Post by needmysanity on Mar 5, 2018 0:05:33 GMT
If she wanted to submit them to an art show she should have kept them. It's her fault they aren't being returned. When my boys brought home an art project I scanned them into my computer and used them as screen savers. I rarely kept any art project more than a few weeks. That teacher would have hated me as a parent.
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dawnnikol
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Post by dawnnikol on Mar 5, 2018 0:05:34 GMT
I keep my kid's artwork, especially fancy pieces, but I certainly have plans to photograph a majority and keep only the favorites down the road. A teacher expecting you to keep something like that months later, with no notice, is nuts. We have an "ice cream social" every year where the school displays artwork from the kids from the year and you can bid on different pieces. The art teacher keeps all that art stored until the end of April when the auction is. Anything not purchased that evening, is sent home at the end of the school year in May.
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Post by myboysnme on Mar 5, 2018 0:07:40 GMT
Well that's a hard question because most of my boys' art is in big cardboard folders just the way they came home from school. They are 26 and 24 now.
Some pieces went into their school scrapbooks and a few pieces are framed in my house.
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Post by jenjie on Mar 5, 2018 0:17:46 GMT
I appreciate Merge saying the art teacher is wrong. She sounds like someone who has crafted a special gift and the recipient didn’t ooh and ahhh over it as much as she hoped. ETA I had a brain fart and forgot merge teaches music, not art. Sorry Merge! |
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Post by hop2 on Mar 5, 2018 0:27:14 GMT
And upon further reflection I can guarantee you I’d have to sit in my hands to avoid replying to her public rant and publicly mention her poor communication skills.
I’d want to make that public reply, but I know my kids wouldn’t like it so I’d be really exerting a lot of self control to not reply.
Really poorly thought out by her on all levels. From sending it home at all, to lack of communication, and the public rant all really poorly done.
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Post by PEAcan pie on Mar 5, 2018 0:35:53 GMT
I write the date/name on it and take a picture, then I toss. I then upload to Facebook for "only me" to see (I like to see it pop up on my memories. If it is an important piece I will hang it on the refrigerator for a little while before I toss.
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milocat
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Post by milocat on Mar 5, 2018 0:46:32 GMT
She's nuts if she wants it back. She should habe never sent them home. I had a bulletin board in the hall and filled it when something new and good enough was done I'd put it up and take something down. Sometimes the turnover was fast, sometimes it took longer, so maybe it would have been on my board maybe not. I have a few things saved from their entire childhood, a file folder.
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Deleted
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Aug 18, 2025 20:17:51 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2018 0:47:31 GMT
Well... in My house when mine were school aged, how long an art project was saved depended on how the artist/creator felt about it. Things my child was very proud of was saved much longer than things my child was not emotionally invested in. A LOT of school art projects were considered dreary homework by the creator and they weren't interested in it being kept. OFten it didn't even make it home.
I had many more impromptu drawings the kids felt strongly about because it was fully their concept. So, yeah, my kid was probably one who painted over a class project (assuming it was on canvas and not paper) eta: time kept would have ranged from not at all to decades... depending on how the artist felt about it at the time of creation and how I felt about it as an example of their artistic, mental and emotional development.
I had saved a couple of key pieces from each year but when the ex and I split that box of memorabilia didn't make it out with me. I doubt he kept any of it. His new wife wasn't too keen on reminders of his previous family life.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Mar 5, 2018 4:58:31 GMT
I think it’s unrealistic for the teacher to assume that every family would save the artwork especially since there was no communication to the families that the work would need to be returned to school for the show. Why she didn’t just keep the stuff at school until the show is really kind of dumb.
I have saved almost all of my kid’s artwork because a lot of it is actually quite good. We have a bunch hanging up in several places in the house and some of my favorites I want to have the pieces professionally mounted and framed. I’m a designer / artist myself so I didn’t really think much about her natural talent until I had the chance to compare some of her stuff with things her same aged classmates have done, and realized, wow. 😳 Now we do more to encourage her to develop it.
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Post by mom on Mar 5, 2018 5:12:30 GMT
Sounds like Art teacher didn't plan this throughly if she needs to the artwork back.
Lack of planning on her part makes it no emergency on my part.
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melissa
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Post by melissa on Mar 5, 2018 5:32:06 GMT
Exactly what mom said above! Whether I would have still had it or not would have depended on what else was going on in my life at the moment and if it was a "keeper." When I was scrapbooking, I would photograph the artwork that came home from school. Photos are much smaller than artwork and easier to store! I often photographed a few projects at once and when dd was small, photographed her with the artwork. Artwork that seemed worthy of saving was stored in a box we kept in a corner of the kitchen. I would "file" the ones that were photographed and maybe saved a few. The saved projectsm the keepers, were hung in the playroom and are still there til this day. That room is now my sewing room.  |
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PrettyInPeank
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Post by PrettyInPeank on Mar 5, 2018 5:49:28 GMT
I can't get over how self-absorbed she is. Who on earth thinks the art project she set up was *so* great that they would *never* be thrown out.
What if the kid hated it? What if the parents had no room? She's making it all about her viewpoint. She must be young.
I toss 99% of it. Like many of you, I am a scrapbooker. I cherish memories more than most people. My mother saved a lot of my preschool art, and I felt "eh" about it to be honest. It was just paint on paper.
I feel like I would cherish some of the projects and papers I wrote in later grades I think. They would say more about who I was at that time and what I was interested in, etc. So I doubt my boys will want entire bags of kindergarten art.
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wellway
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Post by wellway on Mar 5, 2018 10:07:43 GMT
To answer your question the teacher is crazy to think that art work sent home without a note would be available months later to return to school. What age group are we talking about?
I'm guessing the teacher won't make the same mistake next year.
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Mar 5, 2018 12:10:44 GMT
To answer your question the teacher is crazy to think that art work sent home without a note would be available months later to return to school. What age group are we talking about? I'm guessing the teacher won't make the same mistake next year. It was the sixth grade. Also, for those who brought it up, she is younger, but this isn't her first, or even second year here. We've been with the school two years, and she's been here that long, at least. |
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Post by melanell on Mar 5, 2018 12:29:34 GMT
Every art teacher I have ever had or that my kids have ever had kept any art they wanted to display in a show or event until the show or event was over.
It's crazy to think that you can dictate what a child or parent will do with a child's property once it is sent home. And unless clearly specified ahead of time (such as a test that needs to be signed & returned), a child's school work sent home from school is indeed a child's property.
The kids could have framed it, given it away, altered or recycled it into a new work of art, or yes, just threw it away.
Personally, we keep some art projects a very long time. Others we keep long enough to photograph and then we throw them out. Some are displayed for a holiday or a season and then recycled or put in the trash. And some go in the garbage almost immediately. It depends on many factors, some of which include the size, materials used, and how the child who made it feels about it.
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peabay
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Post by peabay on Mar 5, 2018 12:33:51 GMT
I probably would've still had it - our general rule was to keep all art work for the year and then pick one out that she liked the best and the rest went bye bye. If something was really good, my husband had it framed for his office.
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Post by melanell on Mar 5, 2018 12:45:18 GMT
I think it was a good point made above about some art work not even making it home--or at least not in any condition to be later displayed. Things get folded or crammed into backpacks or they try to hold it the whole way home and it gets battered throughout the journey. DS #2 just came home with a piece of artwork torn in two last week. I had to mend it for him because he did want to keep it for awhile, but I seriously doubt a teacher would want to display it how it looks now.  |
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