Museum Field Trip Deemed Too Revealing
Posted: October 3, 2006 Filed under: Intellectual Freedom, News 3 Comments »Sydney McGee, 51, a popular art teacher with 28 years in the classroom, is out of a job after leading her fifth-grade classes last April through the Dallas Museum of Art.
I remember my high school senior art teacher indicating that she could not show us major works in the classroom due to issues of nudity–mind you Nudity, not sexual content. That was 12th grade in Ohio not 5th in Texas.
Anyway, I love the NY Times picture of Mrs. McGee surrounded by innocuous Mondrians (or Mondrian-like paintings).
I worked for a year as a Curatorial Intern at the Dallas Museum of Art, and I’m really shocked by this. MANY classes of students visit the museum each year, all ages, with no problems whatsoever. What a shame…
When I worked in an elementary school I took students to an exhibit that included nude sculpture. The students complained to me only about the distance they had to walk on the tour! I think they were probably very used to seeing nudity on TV and in movies.