Boys’ Art is a ‘Threat’ – Girls’ Not So Much
It's a good thing Goya's not in school in the U.S. today. He'd be in big trouble. It seems that when boys draw pictures, they'd better be the right kind of pictures or they'll face every kind of punishment from supension to criminal charges. For two hundred years, many have thought his painting (above) to be a powerful indictment of Napoleon's brutal oppression of Spanish resistance to French occupation. But today's school authorities know better. If a kid did something like that today, he'd be lucky to escape with his life.
You notice I've been using the masculine pronoun. That's because it is precisely boys who have to be careful about what they draw. The school censors are, well, gunning for them. An image of a gun or something a teacher thinks might be a gun is serious business.
In this case, an Arizona boy was suspended for five days (later reduced to three) for drawing what school officials thought was a gun but might have been a laser (East Valley Tribune, 8/21/07). The school has a zero-tolerance policy for guns. Apparently that includes drawings of guns, which a school administrator called "a gun threat." How a drawing of a gun (if that's what it is), absent any bullets or victims, can constitute a threat, escapes me.
In this case, a Taunton, New Jersey 10-year-old drew a picture that could be construed as him shooting his teacher, although the drawing itself is so crude, it's hard to know (ABC6, 6/17/08). He's up on criminal charges. The teacher wants the boy charged with a crime to "help" him. I'm sure he feels a lot better now.
I'm sure the great Spanish artist who did the "Horrors of War" series of drawings wouldn't be all that surprised to learn that the powers that be, whoever and wherever they are, deem drawings like these disruptive of good order. And I must acknowledge the pedagogy at work here; these experiences will doubtless teach the boys some valuable lessons that help prepare them for manhood.
Meanwhile, for girls, it seems to be different. In this case, five girls, aged 11 and 12, made a video that consists of drawings depicting the "Top Six Ways to Kill Piper," who is their classmate (King5, 5/21/09). They put it on YouTube. Among the top ways are shooting her, making her commit suicide and pushing her off a cliff. One drawing portrays the five girls shooting another with a banner overhead exhorting viewers to "Shoot Piper Now!"
Criminal charges anyone? Not so much. A school official cheerily informed reporters that the girls have displayed remorse for what they did. Their names, unlike those of the boys in the previous two cases have been withheld as have been the terms of their punishment, if any. Does "Shoot Piper Now!" constitute a "gun threat?" Apparently it doesn't.
And we wonder why girls do better than boys in school.
Thanks to Ron for the heads-up.
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