The Power of Audience

A story on the local news caught my interest tonight: an art class was featured from a local high school. Seems that their task was to take photographs of orphaned children in Honduras (I think...) and turn them into portraits and, in turn, these portraits were going to be sent to the children. Students who were working on this project were interviewed. They talked about what materials they were using to create the portraits. But, the thing that really made me tune in was one student who commented on how knowing that her art work was going to be given to and appreciated by the child (i.e. an audience outside the classroom) made this particular project so much more important to her - important to make the portrait just right. Amazing what the power of audience can do to a student's attitude toward a school project!