Art is often described as subjective usually following the mentality of, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” With more schools specifically for art coming around I often wonder “should student’s artwork be for a grade?”

While I am aware schools need to have some form of grading for student’s assignments. Making artwork be graded assignments does raise concerns of lowering students’ self-esteem and harming their perception of their artistic ability.

According to Psychiatrist.com, roughly 45% of Gen Z struggles with mental health issues. Being judged on the art they may want to make their career is not a good way to help that, although it could be a helpful reality check making students realize they aren’t looking toward the correct profession.

An example of student art being for a grade being unhelpful is that it follows an outdated method of teaching that being, “I don’t like your work so you fail.” Which thankfully has mostly disappeared in the past couple decades but the way art is graded at prestige art schools in particular rely heavily on whether teachers: A. Like you or B. Like your work.

In high schools many teachers do adhere to if students work follows directions or not. At oak park there appears to be a trend of some art teachers grading if the student followed the directions of the assignment but occasionally giving criticism that often shows a personal opinion being formed, while this isn’t a bad thing at all to have opinions, I personally believe teachers should stay in the middle with their thoughts regarding students work.

Elementary and middle schools mainly also grade by whether the work follows directions. But all these ways of grading art stem from the teacher personally. Some teachers don’t even realize that they demonstrate favoritism towards their students, which can make students who inadvertently aren’t among the teacher’s favorite artists feel as if they are not good at a class they may otherwise enjoy and excel at with other instructors.

All in all, grading students’ artwork does have its benefits, specifically keeping teachers form being fired by grading students’ work. It does still have its surplus of detractors that make my final answer…Eh it depends on the work, the teacher, the class and several factors that make it a difficult question to answer. Where do you stand?