Reading 6 (Ceramics Education in the 19th Century)

     Tanya Harrod discusses the many different approaches that have been taken to the education of potters. Early in the reading she mentions how in Europe potters had an anti-academy view of education, going to the countryside and learning from rural potters with no formal training. Even today an informal training could be extremely beneficial to the artist's sensibilities. Ignoring contemporary ideals or instruction allows for an expansion of imagination and for unique or just plain bizarre approaches to form, function, methodology, and intentions with the possibility of permanently and radically changing the field of ceramics.
     When learning from someone, regardless of their background and training, the student cannot help but to incorporate elements of the teacher's style into their own work. The more formalized that training is, the less original expressions of the student's own ideas. This is not to say that ceramic education should be solely exploratory or guesswork but that teacher intervention should be kept to the absolute minimum, allowing the student to pursue their interests within the field while giving them the tools to do so without contaminating their budding insights. CSU has found a nice balance between individual expression and formal instruction.