I teach art at Jesuit High, and this is about connections too. My students start out having to search harder to make connections between art and their own world. But by the end of the course, I hope I have helped them make some of these connections.

High school students love to jump off mental cliffs, reflecting and thinking abstractly. Art allows them to move between the worlds of creative thinking and of the concrete. Not all of them realize this, so my task is to help them understand the connection.

Each semester I start my classes by showing students that whether they know it or not they make art happen every day. They get dressed in a room decorated with posters they have chosen, picking out one tie instead of another. They grab notebooks and backpacks decorated with doodles and designs of their own devising, and come to art class.

The typical population of that class runs the gamut from the few who have been involved in art for a number of years and value it highly to that misguided group looking for an easy A. Right in the middle is the largest group: that stressed-out clutch who wonder how to pass a course for which they have no background and no use. So it falls to me to answer that oft-asked question, "Will we really learn anything important in Art Appreciation?"

They understand there will be some art history, some drawing, and some painting, but most do not understand the "why" of it all. I ask them to draw and design, but I do let them know that their work will not be evaluated on talent or experience but instead on their personal interpretation of an idea. They can still have difficulty seeing the connection between art and their other studies, but at least this lets them relax a little and get to work.

A typical semester's work in Art Appreciation includes an art history survey with quizzes and tests. It gives me an opportunity to teach students that art historical movements can often be attributed to that which came before, whether through an elaboration of previous imagery or a rejection of the past. Again, connections.

Another part of the course includes six or seven hands-on art projects. These projects often relate to the art history survey but more often to the visual elements and the principles of design. The students explore pattern, texture, and value by gathering rubbings of surfaces from all over the campus. Color and composition find meaning in the kite project for homecoming celebrations. By studying and experimenting with the materials and techniques of drawing, painting, and sculpture, they better understand and respect the importance of great works of art.

One big part of their art study involves a sketchbook; this ongoing assignment requires that they draw for five or ten minutes and then reflect and write for a few more minutes about the piece. An assignment might be inventing something on paper, perhaps a musical instrument, and then writing about the sound it makes. The writing part gets students to reflect on their own creativity, and they often spend more time on that than on the sketching itself. Sketchbook assignments are a small percentage of students' grades, but they can really engage the students' attention while lending credibility to the rest of the course.

One way that helps students tap into their own creative gifts and gives them the opportunity of self-discovery is sharing their gifts with one another. Several years ago I sponsored an art competition, inviting submissions from students at Jesuit high schools across the country, and 22 schools participated. The response from our students was very enthusiastic. They enjoyed making the discovery that there were other students out there like themselves. "They draw the same things we like to draw!" was how one put it. The next year even more schools participated, and our students' response was again extremely positive. This contact with other students opened doors and broadened their horizons.

Jesuit High is a place where students learn how to learn about many things, including art. It is a place where spiritual formation is as important as academic formation. It is a place that exemplifies the Ignatian principle of cura personalis, concern and care for the whole person, including his or her artistic, creative side.

There is an artist in everyone that deserves to grow. The successful student, the successful artist, is one who has been given the opportunity to learn, to reflect on who he or she is, and to act on this information in order to grow as a person. This Ignatian pedagogical paradigm--experience, reflection, action-- and the study of art make quite a connection.

Kathleen Hoskins has an MFA from Texas Woman's University in Denton and has been exhibiting her art for twenty years. She has been teaching art at Jesuit High School in Dallas for the last seven.