Nudes are bad for your career.

[RemusShepherd]

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/49871

Long story short: A 9th grade art teacher suggests to his students that they take nude life figure drawing classes, and the school board suspends him for sexual misconduct.

Follow the link in that article for more info and a petition. Turns out that art teachers in this school are required to show nude images as introduction to a potential art career. But suggest live models, and you're canned. Welcome to Puritan America.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Has this always been going on, or are we just now hearing things like this because of how quickly and easily we get news now?

Unless there's some other weird context that was left out of the story, this is utterly ludicrous. I guess the next time someone asks for advice on how to properly draw the human butt, I'll direct them to a bowl of chaste, nonsexual fruit.

[Rkolter]

Nice.

[War]

Has this always been going on, or are we just now hearing things like this because of how quickly and easily we get news now?

Unless there's some other weird context that was left out of the story, this is utterly ludicrous. I guess the next time someone asks for advice on how to properly draw the human butt, I'll direct them to a bowl of chaste, nonsexual fruit.

A couple of carefully arranged oranges and bananas.

[Mr.Bob]

Banana and kiwi fruit you mean.

[Blackaby]

I don't find that terribly wrong - although being kicked out of the school is a bit much. Embarrassingly enough. But I'm still of the prudish opinion that children shouldn't see naked people until they're at least 18, and should be prevented from touching them until they're 21.

[ChibiJess]

I actually have a still life set up in my dormitory right now for a painting class that has a fairly obvious display of two apples and a bananna. It also has five empty bottles of Bawls around it.

I don't think the teacher should have been fired - it's rediculous that we're so bloody ashamed of our bodies, especially when those students probably know more about the human body than most people are willing to assume.

I find some of the comments people have left rather amusing - something along the lines of: God wants us to be ashamed of our bodies, otherwise he wouldn't have invented clothes... Didn't Adam and Eve, in the bible, make clothes? I'm rather hoping that person was just being sarcastic...

[IVstudios]

I think it's ridiculous that the teacher is at risk of being fire. But I can see why you wouldn't want 9th graders going out and looking at naked models. I remember what I was like in 9th grade, I had a dirty dirty mind.

Actually, I still have a dirty dirty mind, I'm just better at keeping it repressed now.

[Mr.Bob]

When I was in 9th grade we had to attend class naked!
Then old Mr Henderson would invite us to his house for treats.

[K-Dawg]

I think at my high school you couldn't get to the nude models level until 2 or 3 years of taking art classes up to it.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Don't forget that he didn't actually show them naked people. It was a suggestion to get better at anotomy.

When I was in 9th grade we had to attend class naked!
Then old Mr Henderson would invite us to his house for treats.

That reminds me; never cook without clothes on.

[Ahaugen]

art class? what's that?

[Nyke]

I think it's ridiculous that the teacher is at risk of being fire.

I don't think the Flaming Torch actually teaches art classes.

[Black Sparrow]

I remember what I was like in 9th grade, I had a dirty dirty mind.

Actually, I still have a dirty dirty mind, I'm just better at keeping it repressed now.

Ditto, and ditto. 9th grade is the time of life when you point at the wang on Michelangelo's David and giggle .

Then again, I find America's nudophobia rather hypocritical, especially since kids can be taken to an art museum with nude schulptures everywhere, and have it be called "art" instead on "naughty."

[K-Dawg]

Then again, I find America's nude phobia rather hypocritical

Should I remember that for the cookout?
>_>
<_<

[Rkolter]

reminds me; never cook without clothes on.

So true. So painfully, painfully true.

[Nyke]

Honestly, I'd have no problem with suggesting nude drawing to improve. The administration was in the wrong by <strike>firing</strike> suspending him. (EDIT: Should've read the article, or at least the OP)

As for the social implications (high school students seeing bewbies!), it'd be between the teacher of the nude drawing class, the model, and the student. Honestly, anyone that doesn't do actual art would be kicked out and bring shame to their school for that class for generations to come (sometimes social ostracization is cool).

[IVstudios]

I remember what I was like in 9th grade, I had a dirty dirty mind.

Actually, I still have a dirty dirty mind, I'm just better at keeping it repressed now.

Ditto, and ditto. 9th grade is the time of life when you point at the wang on Michelangelo's David and giggle .

Then again, I find America's nudophobia rather hypocritical, especially since kids can be taken to an art museum with nude schulptures everywhere, and have it be called "art" instead on "naughty."

Sadly,there is no shortage of people here who think naked sculptures and paintings in museums are evil and perverse.

[CaptainClaude]

My secondary school was quite art intesive, so we had nude models from about year nine onwards, that's about 13/14 i think. the way to do it is to make sure the model is a man, an old man, and at any rate teenagers wont be laughing and making comments about the model, they'll be embarrassed as all hell. Nothing wrong with it in my opinion, and the thing to do if a class cant handle it is to stop the class having that lesson, not fire the teacher.

[Black Sparrow]

I remember what I was like in 9th grade, I had a dirty dirty mind.

Actually, I still have a dirty dirty mind, I'm just better at keeping it repressed now.

Ditto, and ditto. 9th grade is the time of life when you point at the wang on Michelangelo's David and giggle .

Then again, I find America's nudophobia rather hypocritical, especially since kids can be taken to an art museum with nude schulptures everywhere, and have it be called "art" instead on "naughty."

Sadly,there is no shortage of people here who think naked sculptures and paintings in museums are evil and perverse.

Argh. You're right.

Is it just me, or has society headed vaguely backwards since the Italian Renaissance?