Let me preface this by saying adamantly that I’m by no means an art teacher. I’ve guided art at camps and museums for years. This summer I’ve been making ends meet by working our district’s summer program. It has been fun! Every week has been different. The past 2 weeks I’ve been teaching art classes back at my home base school. My strategy is a little different than some, as I usually show them what to do and then allow a lot of “do your own thing” rather than “do it this way.” The result is a lot of different open-ended projects that allow kids to express their own ways of getting it done. This type of teaching is done in art classes everywhere. It’s the difference between doing a craft project, where everyone’s looks the same, like this
and creating art. It’s the difference between teaching/guiding a process vs. creating cookie cutter products. It’s process oriented rather than product oriented.
Here is an example:
Color collage: look through magazines and find items that are the color of your paper. The discovery is that they learn how to arrange, spatial skills, and value (different shades of the same color). 
Cardboard sculptures
Sadly, I didn’t learn about this in college, I learned about process vs. product when I worked at the Discovery House. The director of the museum schooled me on how she wanted the art to be process-oriented art, and why. Since this time, I have managed to live my life in this manner.
Process oriented art means that you focus on how and why you’re creating, rather than the product looking exactly the same as your neighbor’s project. It’s the process that the kids learn from, rather than the product. If it’s a product you want, the end-means creates the same result. You’re telling people HOW to complete the task. “Put this here.” “Then you put this there.” “No, that’s wrong.” “You’re not listening!” By the time they’re finished everyone’s project looks the same, and there’s a level of frustration if they had to redo something to make it look “right.” There is a time and place for this: if you’re teaching how to follow directions or having kids practice certain skills such as using scissors or other tools, or staying in the lines. These skills are important life skills children need along the way.
Far too often the product is the focus. Let’s learn this so you can answer this question correctly on the the test. Learning facts and producing them for a test is product oriented. This method, while important at times, is killing our creativity. It’s created an entire generation of great test takers who lack in critical thinking skills. Thankfully this type of testing is on its way out, and the pendulum is swinging the other direction (now we’re pushing out critical thinking skills beyond when kids are ready for them.) Another story for another day.
A few years later I was reminded how important process is. I was training to become a Stephen Minister, and we learned about process oriented goals. Process oriented goals help a person understand that even though they’re going through something traumatizing, you can learn why you’re feeling the way you feel, and you can move forward. It helps you see where you are, and even if you think you’re stuck in a hole, you’re making strides to dig-one shovelful at a time– out of the hole. Often we just need someone from the outside to sit at the top of the hole and offer encouragement while you’re going through it.
You have heard the saying,”It’s not the destination it’s the journey.” In my own life I know what the destination is. I haven’t reached it yet. My journey to this point has shown me that it has a whole lot more twists and turns to go until I get to my destination. I don’t know where or when exactly it’s going to be, but I’ll know when I get there. The process is the journey.
Just this week I realized I have been in my own process-oriented goals for 26 months now. I began the journey by thinking I needed a product. I set a goal to have the product complete, but the date came and went, and I still didn’t have a product. I was stuck. Nothing I did was producing. And, although I still feel stuck, I realized I needed to grow in a different direction. I had to change the process of what I was trying to produce. It helped me! Although I felt stuck I learned through my stuckiness. I am most definitely in a better place than I was 2 years ago. It’s still not easy (just today I got a call from a potential employer telling me that I wasn’t the one). It’s not fun. It’s not really enjoyable. But I’ve learned and I’ve grown so much!
So, here’s to the process, whether art or life. Learning how to process is a life skill that every child needs. Don’t try to convince me otherwise. I know what I’m talking about here, and I have a process to prove it. “The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.”
Carl Rogers
“To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Amateur Artist 