In Texas, an award-winning art teacher who had been teaching 28 years lost her job because a parent complained that their fifth grade child saw a nude during a field trip to an art museum in Dallas.
In art museums, finding sculptures and paintings of nudes is quite common. In most school systems, most children have to have parental permission for a field trip. Now, the art program of that school in jeapordy without a teacher.
Would you have let your child go on a trip to an art museum knowing there may or may not be nude forms they could observe. And, if you will, what harm comes from it?
Thanks for your thoughts and opinons.
2006-09-26 08:44:33 · 17 answers · asked by genaddt 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I would allow my child at any age to see nudes that were part of a general art exhibit and I'd allow an older teen, say 16 or above to see erotic art as well (unless that child was immature and/or had been raised with a repressed and warped view of the body).
Nudity is a part of every one of us and the body itself is neither shameful nor sexual. It's the people who have distorted views on what is natural who have the problem.
Note I said erotic art, not porn; and yes, there is a significant difference.
2006-09-26 08:48:16 · answer #1 · answered by Lori A 6 · 9⤊ 0⤋
I think that is pretty stupid. If you gave permission to go to the art museum, you could count on them seeing nudes done by truly great artists. If you are that uptight, you shouldn't let your kids anywhere, especially public school around other middle school age kids.
My daughter is only three. She has been in several museums and I am sure has seen a few nudes here and there. That won't stop and I am sure that she will be so much more educated because of it.
The teacher will find another job with no problem, and the new school will be lucky.
2006-09-26 08:53:13 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
If it isn't one extreme it's another. I was taking my son to the art museum from the time he was about 5 till, well, just this past summer and he's 16. That is ART not porn, though some people obviously don't know the friggin difference. Maybe that parent needs to go to the art museum and actually see what it is before making such a rash judgement. Though, I'm betting, this is the type of parent that freaks out if they see an underwear commercial on tv.
2006-09-26 08:55:04 · answer #3 · answered by Kithy 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Nudes in museums aren't usually pornographic, so, it's the same as seeing the human form in a medical textbook. But, there are plenty of misinformed people that demonize nudity and treat it like a sin. There is no harm in a preteen seeing a nude - unless the child was raised to only see it in a perverse light - which would be the parents' fault.
2006-09-26 08:51:59 · answer #4 · answered by lelecw14 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Those people are lame.
I HATE people that think that everything that has to do with sex or nudity is offensive or sinful. It is completly natural & beautiful. There is absolutely NOTHING innapropriate or "Sinful" about it, it is THEM that have turned something completely natual & liberating & turned it into somthing vulgar or offensive by equating everything that includes sexual expression or the naked human body to being something of a crude, prostitutal nature; & even so, these are statues & paintings--valuable works of ART, not pornography. The teacher brought the students to view these art works from an artistic standpoint, not an erotic stand-point.
Not all sex is sinful, & not all nudity is sexual, all these so-called "Puritans" make be wanna yell; but I don't, because I know I am better than that, but when it comes to the point of interfering with other's lives &/or artistic freedom, I feel it necessary to step in & give these prudes a good lesson in "Modern Virtue".
Peace! I'm out!
P.S.: I LOVE your avatar! WHOO! "Dark Side Of Oz" ROCKS!(Have you actually tried it? It's Totaly TRUE!) Where did you get it?
2006-09-26 09:02:35 · answer #5 · answered by Lauren C.: Led-head 4 (∞) 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I am an art teacher. I have a Sesame Street video (Sesame St at the Metropolition Museuem of Art) that shows nudes in it. There are a lot of nudes in art but the majority are not vulgar or sexually suggestive. I have seen far worse on this site alone (women using their vaginas as their pictures in place of avatars). This same Texas middle school student, went home, logged on myspace.com and saw actual photos of girls he knows in the buff, or other sexually suggestive poses. That the district would fire the teacher is so beyond my comprehension!! Nudes when presented tastefully are just an expression of the beauty of the human form.
2006-09-26 08:50:12 · answer #6 · answered by Beth M 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Children need to grieve just as much as adults. The age of the child if a big factor when answering this. A 12 year old is able to understand what death is and get closure from being a part of the grieving process,especially if they were close to the deceased. A child under the age of eight or nine may not understand and could be traumatized more by attending, especially an open casket.
2016-03-18 01:37:28 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Uhm, how does a kid go on a field trip w/o a consent form? That's one of many reasons why they are there in the first place.
And yes, my child would most definitely be allowed to go to a muesem, nudes or no nudes. There's no harm in looking at nudes, it's how we were born.
was she fired for taking them to the muesem, or because she did it without consent forms? I'm a little confused about the situation.
2006-09-26 08:49:22 · answer #8 · answered by Manny 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It is crazy that this teacher was fired. It was the Dallas Museum of Art..
I've been there many a time and there is nothing that is in the least offensive about anything.
Maybe some of the signs for topless and "adult" places around the area, but not the museum.
2006-09-26 08:50:52 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I think that parent had an agenda. I don't believe a child in 5th grade would even mention to a parent that they had seen a nude at the museum.
How odd that one particular aspect of the field trip was discussed with the parents... I don't think that nude was shocking or traumatizing in the slightest and don't believe it was actually brought up by the child - the parent was looking for an excuse to force their political views on to others.
2006-09-26 08:53:26 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋