On February 23, Ms. Stolic’s French class, period 1 & AP class visited The Art Institute Of Chicago and viewed “The Language Of Beauty in African Art” exhibition. This field trip started at 11 am and ended at 5:30 pm; students were also allowed to be out of uniform for the day. “The Language Of Beauty in African Art” exhibit started on November 20 and ended on February 27.  According to the Art Institute of Chicago “The Language of Beauty in African Art,” was supposed to show how African art objects are celebrated by the philosophical, political, social, and religious implications for the communities that have incorporated or are still incorporating them into ceremonial, ritual practices, or everyday life.

In a random survey of 50 Morton East students, 35 said that they have been to the Art Institute of Chicago.  Along with the 23 students who attended the field trip, there were 3 chaperones to keep things in order.

“We had Ms. Keppler and Ms. Martinez as chaperones, the biliteracy and instructional coaches here at East. They were instrumental in making this field trip happen and I had full confidence in their support,” French teacher Ms. Stolic said.

There were many reasons why the chaperones decided to pick the Art Institute as the field trip.

“We decided to go to the Art Institute because it has so many works by different Francophone artists and wanted to highlight the cultural aspect which is what helps a language thrive. The arts are a crucial part of the culture. We decided to go to this exhibit because we knew it would only be there for a limited time and we wanted to give students the opportunity to see different artists and types of art from different parts of the Francophone world because there is so much more to it than what is defined as French culture,” French teacher Ms. Stolic said.

As French 1 may be envious that only French 2 and AP French attended, there were good reasons behind this picking.

“I brought along these two classes because both of them have already had at least an entire year of French already, so I knew that there would be more appreciation and we could dedicate more time and attention to a smaller group. The AP students had a unit on art, so this would have been a bit of a review. As for French 2, we wanted the students to show the skills that they have already and that they have gained, which meant more presentational speaking. We knew that French 2 would be able to rise to the challenge,” French teacher Ms. Stolic said.

Some of the students had different opinions on how the field trip went.

“I think it was cool, but it could have gone better,” Junior Felix Rodriguez said.

Students also had a different place in mind for the next field trip.

“I would say we should go to the field museum next. I think they have some French-related things in there,” Junior Felix Rodriguez said.

Overall, many students did enjoy going out of the French classroom to the Art Institute. Though they weren’t there just for fun, they continued to learn through a fun goose-chase assignment that was given to them about the Language of Beauty in African Art that many enjoyed doing. Hopefully, in the future, many others get to experience this as well.