This Art Piece Represents All That Is Wrong With Standardized Tests In America
by N/A, 9 years ago |
3 min read
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While many people have taken to combative ways to vent their feelings regarding standardized testing in America, this artist decided to use art to explore the topic.
While the topic has been a hot button American issue lately, people from all over the world have contributed pencils to this incredible piece...and when you took a look at it, you'll see why.
Harriete Estel Berman created a stunning installation that is used to represent standardized tests and the students that take them.
The piece is intended to remind viewers that art can teach all the things that the Common Core aims to achieve. It can teach math, it can teach creativity, it can teach problem solving.
The piece is designed in the shape of the bell curve, divided into the appropriate stanines, of different students who take these standardized tests.
The piece is made entirely of pencils (no. 2 pencils, something anyone who has ever taken a standardized test recognizes) and fishing line.
The piece took years to complete, due largely in part to the tediousness of sharpening all of those pencils!
They've come from all over the place...United States, Belgium, England, Italy, and Japan, to be exact. The piece is a true melting pot.
The process was extremely long.
Pencils were sorted by color, drilled with holes to fit the fishing line, strung together, and all with meticulous precision to form the desired shape.
The project got publicity from various different fairs in California.
Even some high school students helped out on the project.
Harriete's family helped out, along with a few devoted other individuals. We believe their efforts were worth it—the piece is really incredible!
From left to right: Ace (son), Aryn (daughter), Harriete, Deborah (gallery curator), Bill (husband), and Adam Evans (pencil drilling helper). Alyssa Endo, who did months worth of work on threading the pencils, is not pictured.
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Do not show me this again