Artist Comment-First Project

My experience doing this project was eye-opening for me, the white boy from a suburban township, whose school district wasn’t wealthy, but did alright. I had no idea what issues faced inner city schools that struggle financially. The experience that I received from this project was one of former thoughts being fully proven by the interview of the child I interviewed informally. He didn’t want his name mentioned, and without a parent being present to ask, I couldn’t print his name anyway. When I was talking to him, I asked him what his favorite things to do were. The boy replied that he really liked soccer, baseball, and football. I then was intrigued to ask his favorite things in school, and he replied gym class. I told him there must be some type of subject he likes to do, and he replied that he kind of liked math but he responded that when he grew up, he wanted to be a gym teacher and play sports all the time. Even though this is a stereotypical answer for young boys, however I felt that his disliking of school subjects ran deeper other than a young boys liking of physical activity. This immediately brought my attention toward the building conditions. The jail-like doors, the dim hallways, the general age of the building were all main points that I feel don’t have enough attention drawn to them because of budget constraints. Unfortunately, trying to compete with school choice and other issues driving students away from their schools, Milwaukee Public System has let the condition of their schools go down the drain and affected the student’s attitudes on learning.
Aside from what I learned about the school and the issues I tried to address, I found the camera very helpful to express what I was looking to show when originally looking into this idea as a essay subject. I feel that simply writing about this problem doesn’t address the issue as well as film does, and not only does it not address the issue fully, it doesn’t bring a visual attachment to the problem. The problem today is the question people think, which is “What does this have to do with me?” The answer to this question is shown through film and can connect better with the reader or viewer once a picture shows a point. It’s the most literal cliché, however, is so true when someone says “A picture is worth a thousand words”.


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