Can Obama Bullethole Drawing Be Called 'Art?' [Op Ed]

Louisiana school student has twisted sense of perception

^{The views expressed in this Op-Ed do not reflect that of Loop 21.}

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So what are we to learn from the Boyet Junior High School art installation, which in one case displayed an image of President Barack Obama with a bullet hole in his head?  This digitally manipulated image was the low light of several political cartoons drawn by middle school students of this Slidell, Louisiana school as part of an art project that at least one concerned child and parent brought to the attention of authorities.

Since the news broke more parents have rightly demanded a full investigation as to how those images made it to the exhibit. I don’t understand how a lesson of political cartooning can roam so aimlessly in the academic woods. There’s a reason why Civics is generally taught in high school. Middle school students should be building the historical and rhetorical acumen to engage in what should be a structured conversation or project on politics. Students’ abilities to discern political discourse and/or systems are limited by the curriculums up to that point. The assignment clearly demonstrated a lack of preparedness.

If the students were prepared, then what goal was the teacher aiming for? 

When I first saw some of the completed assignments, I noticed the intellectual laziness that contributed to what a teacher could not possibly consider art.  Certainly, it can’t be considered worthy enough to go on a school wall. To go on the Internet and transpose a bullet hole on a random image of President Obama is clearly a nasty, regurgitated political argument of some derisive talk radio show or dinner table.