Art Appreciation and Awkward Moments

I spent the day with about 40 third graders at the Glenbow Museum. It was an awesome experience and definitely one to re-visit alone, without kids rushing from one exhibit to the next.

Canadian painter Edwin Holgate was featured in the art gallery and I was not only impressed, but moved by some of his paintings. The interpreter told us that the average North American will look at a piece of artwork for a mere 5 seconds and then move on. She taught the students how to look at each painting as a story and involve all five senses. We then did some activities with that in mind. It was fascinating and the kids (and adults) really enjoyed it.

One of the rooms had several statues of a faith god. Some kids were jokingly bowing to the statues. At one point, my group and another group were sitting on a bench looking at the very large statue. I whispered to Jacob that it was similar to what we talked about in kids church on Sunday about the three men who wouldn't bow to the king's statue and were thrown in the fire. I was trying to privately illustrate a point for him and I could see it was reinforced in his mind. He turns around, looks straight at the other mom and says quite loud and matter of fact, "do you worship God?" I could feel the lump in my throat forming. She looked at him blankly and didn't respond except to ask for clarification. Jacob rephrased his question by saying, "do you go to church?" He went on to inform them that if we worship God, we cannot bow to idols etc etc.

I felt very awkward about the whole situation. Thankfully another kid interupted and went on about believing in God, the real God, but there are lots of gods. I proceeded to tell Jacob that other faiths have other gods and not everyone is Christian. Yikes! Maybe such situations shouldn't make me feel awkward but they do....it is just not my style!