Since the beginning of human civilizations we have made art. From the oldest known cave paintings in Indonesia, to the papyrus scrolls of Egypt, the perspective pieces of the Renaissance, and modern creations across the globe, the human species has always strived to create beauty, tell stories, and make statements through artistic pieces. Recently there has been increased controversy surrounding the educational use of certain artistic pieces. Several teachers have resigned, been fired, or been relieved of teaching duties throughout the country for displaying various works of art in their classrooms that were disapproved of by members of the community—students, parents, the university, or the district. This raises several questions: What art should be accepted as an element of our education? When should the opinions of students, parents, and others override the pre-written curriculum?
An incident that recently received a lot of media coverage occurred at the Tallahassee Classical School in Tallahassee, Florida. Every year, the school’s sixth grade art history students spend a portion of their spring semester learning about art from the European Renaissance period. This includes painting, sculpture, architecture, and more. In mid-March of this year, an outcry was sparked over a teacher showing images of some of Michelangelo’s classical works of art, including the famous statue David, and two paintings, Birth of Venus and The Creation of Adam. Like many works of art from across the centuries, these pieces include nude human bodies. In years past, parents at the Tallahassee Classical School had been sent an email notifying them that the art would be displayed prior to the lesson. However, this year that email was reportedly written, but not sent out due to a “series of miscommunications.” The content of the lesson caused a backlash from parents when they heard the images were shown in class without their prior knowledge. One even equated Michelangelo’s statue of David to “pornographic” material. Another parent stated that she felt her child “should not be viewing those pieces.” In response to the outrage, the school sent out an apology email to the parents of the sixth-graders, explaining that miscommunications on their part led to the email not being sent ahead of time. The then-principal, Hope Carrasquilla, expressed her apologies at the school’s lack of proper prior communication; she did, however, make her view on the situation clear later on, stating that “we did not have to send out a letter regarding Renaissance art.” Carrasquilla resigned soon after the incident, after being told by the campus’s governing board that she could either step down or be fired from her position.
This is not the only recent incident of educators being fired for showing certain works of art in their classroom. Erika López-Prater, an adjunct art history professor at Hamline University in Minnesota, was fired for showing some ancient depictions of the prophet Muhammad. López-Prater was aware that images of the prophet Muhammad are considered blasphemy by many Muslims, so she included warnings in the course syllabus, letting students know about the 14th and 16th centuries works that are considered by many to be “masterpieces of Islamic art.” The instructor additionally told students that participation in this section of the course was optional, and informed them again several minutes prior to showing the images about the content of the lesson. Although López-Prater made efforts to balance her course material with the religious beliefs of some students, one of López-Prater’s students took offense to the course material, and complained to administrators. López-Prater responded to the college senior, Aram Wedatalla, with an email apology, saying “I would like to apologize that the image I showed in class … made you uncomfortable and caused you emotional agitation. It is never my intention to upset or disrespect students in my classroom … I am sorry that despite my attempt to prevent a negative reaction, you still viewed and were troubled by this image.” In response to the complaints made by Wedatalla, the university rescinded their offer to López-Prater of a teaching position for the following semester, issuing statements that her lesson was “undeniably inconsiderate, disrespectful and Islamophobic” as well as saying that “respect for observant Muslim students in that classroom should have superseded academic freedom.” Later the University walked back on some of these controversial statements and rephrased their viewpoints, saying that “language was used that does not reflect our sentiments on academic freedom … It was never our intent to suggest that academic freedom is of lower concern or value than our students—care does not ‘supersede’ academic freedom, the two coexist.”
Both of these incidents have sparked national and international debate with a great variety of opinions about academic freedom and what makes curriculum appropriate. Regarding the paintings shown at Hamline University, the Muslim Public Affairs Council wrote that “the painting was not Islamophobic” and additionally stated that “religions are not monolithic in nature, but rather, internally diverse. This principle should be appreciated in order to combat Islamophobia, which is often premised on flattening out Islam.” A different viewpoint was shown at a local town hall, where Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relation, declared that the images not only hurt Muslim students, but they had “no benefit” in the course. The value of showing the paintings has been widely debated. Any ancient piece of art would of course be valuable in an art history class; the question lies in whether this value outweighs potentially offending students’ beliefs, or making them feel “traumatized,” as Aram Wedatalla described her experience. Christiane Gruber, a professor of Islamic art at the University of Michigan, backed up Erika López-Prater’s decision to include the material in her course along with extensive content warnings. Gruber said that studying Islamic art without the Compendium of Chronicles—the title of one of the controversial paintings—“would be like not teaching Michaelangelo’s David,” which ties back to the incident at the Tallahassee Classical School.
How much influence should parents have in the education of their children? This has recently been a heavily contested topic throughout the United States, with the “Parental Rights in Education’’ bill being passed last year in Florida, and the House passing the national “Parents’ Bill of Rights” in March this year. Both bills increase parental involvement in education, with Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida signing a bill banning many additional topics, including the discussion of any form of sexual orientation or gender identity in younger classrooms. However, DeSantis is currently working on expanding his bill to prohibit this instruction to all grade levels. According to Barney Bishop III, the chair of the Tallahassee Classical School board, “Parents are entitled to decide whether any topic, any subject, any use of particular sensitive words are going to be discussed in the classroom.” Former principal Carrasquilla believes that a balance and cooperation between parents and schools is needed in order to create the best curriculum possible. She said, “What doesn’t work is when you have parents who are trying to say, ‘This is your curriculum, this is what you’re supposed to be teaching.’”
In all, there are countless viewpoints on what is appropriate in a classroom environment, as well as what measures should be taken when someone violates someone else’s ideas of what constitutes appropriate behavior or material to include in a classroom. The question lies in where to draw the line between respecting beliefs and educating students.