“I teach Art -- not crafts.” Let me be clear; Art is different than crafts. You can find numerous crafts on the Internet and in books, but many of these are not teaching Art. Art should teach creativity, not direction following. It should inspire the student to make their own choices and make mistakes from which to learn. Teaching Art should always include a lesson in Art History or a design theory. For example, when you have 25 snowmen that all pretty much look the same, what you have is a great winter holiday craft, but it's not Art. Art is something that the student will be proud of because they have made it distinctively their own. It's something that the child will save and 15 years later, open up a box, see it and say, "Hey, wow, I made that!" This is what I strive to accomplish with my students. Art is a wonderfully rich subject that incorporates most every other discipline. Art is universally necessary as part of the human experience, and to teach it badly or not teach it at all leaves the student with a void in their educational and human experience. For some students, Art is their safe haven, their place to excel and shine; without art they may never know the joy of success. I take my job very seriously, because I believe in it. I believe that what I do will enrich my students, not just while they are in school but for the rest of their lives. I teach art at the elementary level and I have 535 students. I expect that many of them will never take art again after leaving my school. Only a few of them will continue to take classes and only a few of them will actually become a professional artists. However, it is my goal that every one of my students will have an appreciation for art, a basis for critical and creative thinking, and a general knowledge of art history. I am in a wonderfully unique position that I teach a fundamental subject during a fundamental time in a person’s development.
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