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| The Case of Pete Panse, by Brian Yoder |
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In his discussions with students Mr. Panse mentioned several options for advancing their figure drawing skills; the local community college, a nearby frame shop that sponsors art classes, and the prestigious New York Academy of Art. He also described pre-college figure drawing programs at several other New York City art schools, and a highly successful art college prep program called the Mill Street Loft. In addition to these established courses, Mr. Panse also indicated that he was considering the possibility of offering an intensive figure drawing program of his own (8 hours a day every Saturday for 35 weeks). This proposed course would also be open to area art teachers, and would have required that parents serve as chaperones to ensure a strong adult presence. Ultimately, Mr. Panse was unable to locate inexpensive space for a studio and was prevented from carrying out his plan because of the controversy that erupted over the proposal. Panse told his students that if his own figure drawing class materialized, he would be obligated to submit any advertisement to the school principal for approval, and that a denial might preclude him from offering the course to his own students, for their consideration. The mere mention of the "possibility" of a "future" course, and discussions in the "theoretical" are what the school board regards as a fireable offense in this case.
This seems particularly odd, since the ninth grade art history survey course includes dozens of images of nudes. Mr. Panse's students had completed that unit previously, and are now upperclassmen. Moreover, art teachers are required to speak of career options in the art field, what training is required, and how students might prepare for art school, so according to the official school policy, art teachers are required to show nude images to their students and are required to tell them about nude figure drawing courses that they might enroll in. Mr. Panse was also accused of insubordination since he was supposedly told to not mention these figure drawing classes to his students previously (a charge that Panse denies on the grounds that he was never told not to do this in advance of his suspension and that his supervisor was fully aware and in approval of his recommendations for figure drawing classes, and that in fact, his supervisor had offered to award high school credit to Panse's students who had studied nude figure drawing at the New York Academy of Art during the summer of 2005). What initiated this whole case was one complaint, from a father who (presumably on religious/moral grounds) was opposed to his daughter being involved in any extracurricular class in which nude males were the subject. Of course it's his right to make that decision for his own daughter, but we see no reason why such a choice to refrain from his daughter's participating in such classes should preclude her teacher from even mentioning their existence. In fact, this particular father has recently been defending Mr. Panse against the attack by the school administration.
He is not being accused of recommending that these students attend these classes without parental permission or without proper supervision and chaperones. He is not even being accused of carrying out any figure drawing courses, only of recommending them and proposing that he offer such a course. Nobody is accusing him of forcing anyone to go to these sessions and indeed, neither the four students who attended the sessions last summer nor their parents have any complaints at all about the experience. Nobody is claiming that anything unsavory was going on in any of these figure drawing sessions, involving Mr. Panse, Academy instructors, his students, the models, other artists, or anyone else.
Maybe this is ordinary ignorance on the part of the Superintendent and the board of ordinary educational methods in the arts compounded by stubbornness about admitting that they made a mistake. Perhaps this is just a case of disagreement over the morality of nudity per se, perhaps animated by religious dogma (there is a Reverend who serves as a board member). If so then it is a case of proponents of one point of view (that nudity is itself evil) trying to shut up those with the opposite view. Perhaps the acceptance of modern art has reached such a point that the members of this board oppose traditional methods of teaching art on the grounds that they are 'old-fashioned' and therefore not necessary. The district has recently gone through a nasty sex scandal in which the past superintendent had been molesting a male student for some time and the scandal had resulted in a prison sentence for the superintendent and the replacement of several board members, so perhaps this is just a case of hypersensitivity to anything even remotely tinged with anything remotely sexual. Another possibility is that some professional jealousy is involved. Mr. Panse is highly credentialed professional who is well respected by his peers, while the superintendent's experience has been limited to a two year stint as a substitute teacher. It may be that several or all of these are at the root of this controversy, but one this is certain, merely recommending that students take figure drawing classes isn't.
Write Letters of Support: Letters of support (especially if you have some kind of professional qualifications) will help bolster Mr. Panse's case. In order to prevent a flood of mail from overcoming Mr. Panse, Brian Yoder has volunteered to collect the letters and deliver them to Mr. Panse in bulk. You can send letters to him at: 972 Cornell Road, Pasadena, CA 91106. Write to the Board of Education: Middletown School District Board of Education, 223 Wisner Avenue, Middletown, NY 10940. Sign Our Online Petition: We have created an online petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/Reinstate_Pete_Panse/ for supporters to sign. Add your name to the cause! Follow the Story as it Develops: Come back to this page from time to time for updates about the case. Attend Middletown New York School District Board Meetings: If you are in the area, nothing speaks louder than showing up in person and speaking up about the case. You can look at meeting schedules and procedural rules at http://www.middletowncityschools.org/boardofed/boepage.htm
He is a National Board Certified Teacher (in Adolescent and Young Adult Art), the highest level of certification that a teacher can achieve in America. He is one of only two National Board Certified Teachers in his District, and is a trained Facilitator for helping teachers explore and pursue the requirements needed to achieve National Board Certification. (See: http://www.nbpts.org/) He graduated with honors from the New York Academy of Art, with a degree in Figurative Painting, the only accredited masters program in the county in figurative art. He helped to design an outreach program called 'Go Figure!' for the Academy, which placed MFA student instructors in twenty two New York City schools, providing drawing instruction to over eight thousand students in twenty two high schools. He taught 'Go Figure!' at the Academy to high school students (including the use of nude models). The progress of the high school students in this course was so rapid that two MFA students enrolled in the class. (See: http://www.nyaa.edu/) He is probably the only person in the country who is both a National Board Certified Teacher, and a graduate of the NY Academy of Art. The New York State Art Teachers Association asked him to write an outline for a course called 'Figure Drawing', which will serve as the course outline by the New York State Department of Education, to prevent challenges to course credits in locally developed figure drawing courses, throughout the state.
None of the Mill Street Loft students have ever taken less than $20,000, and the average is almost $50,000 in merit based scholarship money. Some of the Mill Street Loft students have, of course, received the top awards afforded by the college of their choice. Twenty eight of Mill Street Loft students are enrolled at the prestigious Pratt Institute, and fourteen are at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Top Art schools come to Mill Street Loft to recruit the high school students. Currently, Pratt Institute, Maryland Institute College of Art, Columbus College of Art & Design, Savannah College of Art & Design, College of St. Rose, Pratt at Munson Williams Proctor Institute, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston all beat a path to Mill Street Loft's door, to hand out scholarships. 
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