DEL.ICIO.USAtlanta art teacher wins $675,000 in grants
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, December 26, 2008
Raymond Veon’s art students stared at the painting of a bunch of people crowded around one man.
For a few minutes the fourth-grade class at Mary Agnes Jones Elementary in Atlanta was silent.
RICH ADDICKS / raddicks@ajc.com/Staff
Mary Agnes Elementary art teacher Raymond Veon recently won three grants worth more than $675,000.
“OK, what do you see?” Veon asked. “Who’s the most important person?”
Immediately, students raised their hands. They focused on the old man in the center. One of his hands pointed upward, while the other gestured toward a bowl.
They guessed what was in the bowl — blood, no medicine, maybe poison. They wondered if he was a slave or a prisoner and if his feet were bound in the chains on the floor.
A few kids noticed other people in the painting were crying. Some students thought they were praying. The class wondered if someone was about to die.
Much of the discussion took place with little prodding from Veon. After a few minutes, he told them the painting was “The Death of Socrates” by Jacques-Louis David.
That led to a quick discussion about ancient Greece and its influence on modern government and science.
He told students that David painted the picture around the time of the French Revolution, and it served as a reminder that people must make sacrifices for their beliefs.
“They need to be able to understand art doesn’t just happen, that it is influenced by what we know, what we understand and what is happening around us,” Veon said after class.
Veon recently won three grants worth more than $675,000 over a three-year period to continue these art-centered lessons. One award is a grant he co-wrote from the U.S. Department of Education, and the other two are from the McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation, which supports supplemental education programs.
The grants will provide many of Atlanta Public Schools’ art teachers with training and the chance to develop lessons together. The money also helps pay for visits to museums and allows high school students to work on art projects with elementary school students.
The education foundation said in a statement that people like Veon “make teaching and learning exciting, innovative and motivating.”
Veon, 43, has been teaching art for 16 years. He covers his classroom walls with paintings, drawings and other pieces designed by students. A professional artist, Veon includes a few of his canvases around the room.
An animated teacher, Veon talks fast with his hands in constant motion. He gets about 30 minutes once a week with each class and crams as much as he can into each lesson.
Students said Veon makes the class fun.
“This class is cool because we get to make stuff,” fourth-grader John Price said. “But we also talk a lot about paintings and stuff, and we get to say what we think and what we see. It’s fun because there really are no wrong answers when you’re talk about this stuff.”
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