He hates art class

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A thousand times yes to this! My son's are both very creative and have always loved doing art at home (with certain materials, things like paint and paper mache are usually too much for them to deal with from a sensory perspective except in a very controlled way), and yet we were very surprised that neither of them liked art at all at school. The problem was exactly what you described, the goals were too rigid, there was a "right" and a "wrong" way to do everything and no room at all for any creativity. So rather than making art being a joyous, expressive affair, it was just an exercise in frustration because their motor skills and ability to follow instructions were just not good enough to produce the required results. One of my sons got more and more mired down in trying to do things "perfectly" until he eventually gave up making art for several years (at home for his own pleasure, he continued to suffer through the required projects at school, and they often ended in a meltdown) when it was one of the things he was once happiest to do and proudest of. I am happy to report that he is once again back to prolific drawing at home, but it was a process to get him back to taking joy and having confidence in his own creativity after all those rotten, useless little craft projects at school beat it out of him!

I say investigate the possible sensory causes like azurecrayon suggested, and then ask for accommodations or alternative projects. All he is learning right now is that art is hard and he is "bad" at it, so whatever the teacher is trying to teach is being lost anyway.

My daughter failed 6th grade art. How do you fail art? She sat in class reading a book and never handed in any assignments. Why did she do that?

Imagination was the first challenge. If she started with a blank paper then she finished with a blank paper. She's an excellent craftsman, she loves origami, knitting, and weaving and anything where there's a skill to be mastered. But it's very difficult and uncomfortable for her to create anything from scratch, without guidance.

Attention was the second challenge. She stopped doing art as soon as a new teacher explained that students would present their completed works to the class. My daughter was already insecure about her imagination and the idea of exposing this to her classmates was terrifying. So she didn't do anything.

Unfortunately, I didn't learn any of this until one day before the end of a marking period when the art teacher called to say that my daughter hadn't submitted any work for the past three months.

This year she was happy because the school eliminated art class due to budget cuts.

Sounds like the same issues we are having! I'm glad your kiddo is starting to draw again.

Shame on that teacher for waiting 3 months before doing anything! I would be furious! If a child is struggling or not doing the work, the teacher should be talking to the parent about the behavior and possible solutions.