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“The road to expertise in art is open to anyone who wants to take it. All that is required is an open mind and a capacity to absorb new experiences.”
H.W. Janson and Anthony F. Janson

I almost believed in the adage above--if I hadn’t known better.
Being a teacher of the Humanities for more than ten years in the university, I can say that I have seen it all. Stating that it was a struggle is an understatement because learning, and in turn, teaching about art is just like scratching the surface, and in reality it is actually the easiest part. The more difficult part is the “convincing” and the “persuading”—convincing the students that it is worth their precious time learning about art; and at the same time persuading them that there is something in store in appreciating it. But sometimes I cannot help but ask myself, is it? Is there?
Upon realizing that I have myself to be convinced and persuaded first, I decided to study about art in New York City, and so far it was the best decision of my life. The Big Apple taught me countless things, but the best lesson I got was realizing that I know nothing, and never will know everything. In every museum I visited and in every painting my eyes marvelled upon, I always ended up discovering and experiencing something new and something more. I have seen Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” countless of times and still cry in front of it every single moment; I have crossed the Brooklyn Bridge almost every single day and yet I still gasp upon reaching the other side; I have watched a number of Puccini’s Operas and I still feel overwhelmed every curtain call—every single time I experience “art” it seems always new and at the same time, it feels that I never got enough. New York, particularly the art that the city houses made me realize why there is the word “human” in Humanities.
I came back to the Philippines thinking that I had solved the puzzle, but soon enough, reality started to bite. I am now convinced and persuaded that “it is” and “there is”, but how am I supposed to make my students understand it if the first question of the semester is about the need for the Humanities in their specific field of study? And there goes another challenge in teaching art—the attitude of the 21st century students towards learning. Unlike Filipino students decades ago (who will just follow the curriculum), learners of today have a say in what they think they should learn, and this prompts the teachers to perform a two-fold task: (1) to teach the course, but more importantly, (2) to make the students “realize” and in turn “feel” the need for it.
In my early years of being a Humanities teacher, I never failed to find connections between my lessons and my students’ fields of study. It was very difficult. I always wondered how I would be able to relate the music of Mozart to Anatomy, for example. There were times when the connections I made seemed forced and unnatural, but I did not care less because the fear of my subject being perceived “irrelevant” overshadowed all things else—until I realized that no connection had to be made because the aim of the “humanities” is not only to make the students better professionals in their fields, but ultimately to make them the best “human beings” they can ever be. Because of this epiphany, I now have the proper response to students who are inquiring about the relevance of this subject to their specific fields; and as a teacher of the “Humanities” I just need to emphasize that before they became students, and before they become professionals, they are “human beings” first—if these statements fail to convince them, I am not sure what will.
“Being Human” is the guiding light of this course that is why the discussions were written in a conversational tone. Every lesson attempts to be less condescending and more open to the ideas of students themselves which prompts a “dialogue” between the course and the learners. In addition, the topics were introduced not as imperious definitions but unlatched perspectives which embrace free discourse and encourage further exploration.
This course also situates Philippine art in a global standpoint. In every lesson, there is a recurring dialogue between art in the worldview stance, and art in the Filipino perspective. By having this feature, the students will no longer feel that Philippine art is far removed from other artistic movements, and in turn appreciate it even more.
Ultimately, this course is not a guaranteed “road” to “expertise” in art, which according to H.W. Hanson and Anthony Hanson, is open to anyone who wants it. But hopefully, this course makes the students more open minded and more capable in absorbing new experiences en route to understanding and in turn, appreciating great and notable works of art.


Edward John C. Padilla

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