Journals21
Newest
Dear Mr. Erz,
I wanted you to know some things.
I failed your algebra class in 9th grade, pretty much on purpose. I know. That's a fairly common story, and not that surprising. We clashed a little. I remember asking the typical questions, like "What will I ever use this for? I'm gonna be an artist!"
Here's the first irony of the story. I've never used algebra in my life except for fun. I got into war-gaming and had to figure out stuff like collision equations. It's the Algebra Teacher's Revenge.
But the real story here is what you didn't do. You didn't reject me, or look down on me, or nag me or drag me down. You just accepted my decision to be stupid and let it slide. This made for some of my fondest memories of school. Discussions about how the world works, playing chess with other students and trying to figure out your hanoi tower puzzle, all in an atmosphere of acceptance.
What this produced was that when the true irony of my life materialized, my profession as a teacher, it was your class that I emulated instinctively, without realizing it for many years. After all, I teach art in a junior high. What possible connection could that have to my high school algebra class, right?
It wasn't until I began to think about ways to make my kids more comfortable, more happy, more creatively stimulated, more accepted; until I began stretching outward and inward to achieve this ephemeral goal, that I unconsciously reached backward into my own past as a student.
The first things that came to mind were a chess set and a hanoi tower puzzle. It was an odd and unexpected image.
It was then that the realization hit me. It wasn't the toys, though my students love them. It was the complete and unconditional acceptance of me as a person; respect and tolerance for my drama and my laziness and my poor decisions. That was the key.
When I was in college, my professors often asked me to list people who inspired me as teachers, so that I could aspire to be like them.
I must confess, you were never on my lists. It was the dramatic and charismatic, the ones who, like fireworks, were always burning and exploding in my perception and memory.
Here's the tick, though, the catch, the twist. You were always there, Dale, under the surface. So pleasant, so quiet, so foundational that I had to mature before I could see your influence on me.
Of all the things my own students love and respond to, and I estimate that there's been around 5000 of them so far, it's the atmosphere of my class.
It's what they remember with fondness, with nostalgia and longing sometimes, when they are struggling with their higher level core classes, or with their daily jobs.
I've been teaching long enough now that the children of former students are beginning to appear at my door. Their expectations are high, having heard great things from their parents, their uncles and aunts and older brothers and sisters.
Sometimes their parents come with them, just to see me again. They enter my room with wonder, with anticipation, with wry smiles, as if knowing a private joke between us. Many of them come a few steps into my room, spin slowly to take it in, then sigh with a kind of relief.
"It's the same, it's still here, it's still good." You can see this in their faces, their stances. And they are wistful and happy.
This brings me joy and fulfillment and a pretty good reputation.
And I've not given you credit enough for it.
I'm honored to have carried forward your ideals and your passion for teaching and your genuine kindness.
I'm sorry it took me thirty years to say it.
Thank you, Dale.
Thank you, Mr. Erz.
Christian Fasy
Art Teacher
Mt. Ogden Junior High
I wanted you to know some things.
I failed your algebra class in 9th grade, pretty much on purpose. I know. That's a fairly common story, and not that surprising. We clashed a little. I remember asking the typical questions, like "What will I ever use this for? I'm gonna be an artist!"
Here's the first irony of the story. I've never used algebra in my life except for fun. I got into war-gaming and had to figure out stuff like collision equations. It's the Algebra Teacher's Revenge.
But the real story here is what you didn't do. You didn't reject me, or look down on me, or nag me or drag me down. You just accepted my decision to be stupid and let it slide. This made for some of my fondest memories of school. Discussions about how the world works, playing chess with other students and trying to figure out your hanoi tower puzzle, all in an atmosphere of acceptance.
What this produced was that when the true irony of my life materialized, my profession as a teacher, it was your class that I emulated instinctively, without realizing it for many years. After all, I teach art in a junior high. What possible connection could that have to my high school algebra class, right?
It wasn't until I began to think about ways to make my kids more comfortable, more happy, more creatively stimulated, more accepted; until I began stretching outward and inward to achieve this ephemeral goal, that I unconsciously reached backward into my own past as a student.
The first things that came to mind were a chess set and a hanoi tower puzzle. It was an odd and unexpected image.
It was then that the realization hit me. It wasn't the toys, though my students love them. It was the complete and unconditional acceptance of me as a person; respect and tolerance for my drama and my laziness and my poor decisions. That was the key.
When I was in college, my professors often asked me to list people who inspired me as teachers, so that I could aspire to be like them.
I must confess, you were never on my lists. It was the dramatic and charismatic, the ones who, like fireworks, were always burning and exploding in my perception and memory.
Here's the tick, though, the catch, the twist. You were always there, Dale, under the surface. So pleasant, so quiet, so foundational that I had to mature before I could see your influence on me.
Of all the things my own students love and respond to, and I estimate that there's been around 5000 of them so far, it's the atmosphere of my class.
It's what they remember with fondness, with nostalgia and longing sometimes, when they are struggling with their higher level core classes, or with their daily jobs.
I've been teaching long enough now that the children of former students are beginning to appear at my door. Their expectations are high, having heard great things from their parents, their uncles and aunts and older brothers and sisters.
Sometimes their parents come with them, just to see me again. They enter my room with wonder, with anticipation, with wry smiles, as if knowing a private joke between us. Many of them come a few steps into my room, spin slowly to take it in, then sigh with a kind of relief.
"It's the same, it's still here, it's still good." You can see this in their faces, their stances. And they are wistful and happy.
This brings me joy and fulfillment and a pretty good reputation.
And I've not given you credit enough for it.
I'm honored to have carried forward your ideals and your passion for teaching and your genuine kindness.
I'm sorry it took me thirty years to say it.
Thank you, Dale.
Thank you, Mr. Erz.
Christian Fasy
Art Teacher
Mt. Ogden Junior High
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
A Spiritual Experience
3 min read
Right now, she is 15 yrs. old and tougher than boiled rope. In her mind, she has to be. When I found this out, there was no way I wouldn't have done this for her.
I tend to be a pretty spiritual person, and I'm pretty empathic, but I wasn't prepared for what happened today. I was finishing this up as quickly as I could because I wanted to get it done before Christmas break. I struggled with the picture of her dad. I had to completely erase and re-do the eyes because they were too big. My first attempt had an odd resemblance to an anime character.
I was sweating it a little. I wanted to finish today and it had to be just right. As I worked on it between student emergencies (I draw in class as much as I can to model artistic behaviors) it began to get easier and easier. This happens when I'm on the right track, of course, so I didn't really notice a difference until I was working alone during my prep period. It was quiet in my room, and I was concentrating.
I started to get the impression, kind of my imagination, that as I got closer to his actual appearance, he got closer to me. In my mind, I kept feeling that he was going to step out of the page if I hit it just right. It was like I was calling him forth, or bringing him back.
The longer I worked, the stronger it got, until I knew it was just right, and I suddenly felt like he had been helping me all along. I felt his love for his daughter, and how important it was to him that she have this present, that she have this love letter reminding her of a time when everything was right in her world.
It was a humbling experience, because I feel like I have been allowed to participate in this gift of divine love for a young girl who needs to know that her dad still loves her, and that everything will be ok.
Her mom called me to tell me that it was beautiful, that it was perfect, and that she cried when she saw it.
I cried too.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Creativity is ...
6 min read
I don't believe that encouraging the process cheapens it.
I can understand that people who already consider themselves as creative might not feel a need to figure out why.
I find it ironic though, that they say that the way to be creative is to not think about what makes them creative and that's what they find makes them creative. If this is so, then they ARE following the process, and they ARE thinking about it, and their process DOES work. For them, NOT thinking about it IS the process.
What I can't agree with is people saying they are not creative, or saying that others are not creative, without being willing to say what creativity is. Just as with anything else, your definition of creativity is very important to be able to understand it.
The idea that it is some mystical, unknowable quantity confuses Creativity with Inspiration.
The idea that it is something new confuses Creativity with Innovation, or Originality.
The idea that Creativity is only Creative when it is THE best, MOST original or MOST innovative is damaging, because it discourages people from trying to be creative.
In my neck of the woods, scrap-booking is a huge thing. Many, many of the women who fuel this billion dollar industry do not think of themselves as creative, though they are creating every single day. They would very quickly give all their friends credit for being creative, but would immediately deny it for themselves because of all of the above confusions.
There is an old story (which actually happened) of a congressman who was working on pornography law. When pressed for a definition, he said "Well, I may not be able to define it, but I know it when I see it." Basing law on this kind of nebulousness is unproductive at best. Everyone has different ideas about what constitutes pornography. For some, it means any kind of nudity. But most people would not agree that nudity is the only definition of pornography. For some, it is anything that is sexually stimulating. But everyone has different things that do, or do not stimulate them. So the definition ends up being dependent on community standards, which seems to work, unless you don't agree with the others in your community.
Community definitions of creativity can be just as useless, if they are not shared or explained.
I get into arguments with teachers all the time because they try to grade on creativity without teaching for it.
Nothing gets me madder than hearing "We are going to grade this project on creativity…" and when I ask them to define it, they can't even verbalize what they are looking for, just like that congressman.
What this often means is that to be successful, the student needs to come up with something that the judges have never imagined themselves or have never seen before. (Innovation) How can an inexperienced student overcome the teacher's experience? Only through Luck. Luck is not Creativity.
Sometimes the teacher will respond to beauty. So, the student needs to come up with something beautiful. How can they possibly guess what the teacher thinks is beautiful? Only through Luck. Luck is not Creativity, and neither is Beauty.
Sometimes the teacher will respond to hard work, but not often, and not without elements of Innovation and Beauty, because that is what the teacher believes they are looking for, without really thinking about it.
This is all very unfair because it means that only the lucky are deemed creative.
If you believe Creativity = Inspiration, then you don't think it comes from you. Therefore you are never responsible to be creative, nor can you be.
People who believe that Creativity = Innovation can be self-defeating. When they look at another's work, they often think…"Wow, that work is amazing. That's really original. I could never come up with that." Therefore, the other is creative, and they are not. What they fail to understand is that other could never come up with work like their own.
But there are ways to foster innovative thought. The advertising industry pays billions of dollars a year to do so. The problem is often getting to that original idea first, which requires effort. But for some reason, people don't believe that effort is creative unless they see it as SUCCESSFUL effort. And what is the definition of success?
Do you see the problem? And all the vagueness and nebulousness just feeds that problem.
You can't be successful if you can't define success. You can be lucky, but not successful.
So, the problem, in my view, is getting people to BELIEVE they are creative, so they WILL be; and also to DEFINE creativity and success so they can be attained.
The definition I use with my students is "Creativity = Making Stuff". If you are creating, you ARE creative.
For my students, if they are trying something that THEY have never tried before, they ARE innovative.
Beauty is so personal that THEY need to decide what is beautiful. I tell them when I think something is beautiful, but I try to have a very broad idea of beauty, and I don't equate it with success.
And the thing I fight hardest to do is teach them that ANY amount of effort IS success because it LEADS to success, and that the only way to fail is to NOT try.
I work hard to teach them that false starts and dead ends are not failure, but evidence that they have come a long way.
And finally, I teach them how to generate ideas by using lots of techniques that WORK.
Like: journaling; filling their minds with lots of images and concepts; trying combinations they have never tried before; paying attention to what inspires them and seeking it out; and manipulating their environment to encourage those things.
There's lots of formulas for creativity, but they all involve some kind of Passion as the driving force; some kind of inflow of information to provide fuel for the imagination, a willingness to work on the project or concept until the thing clicks. Sometimes you have to work on it, then walk away a while and let it incubate and sprout. You should strike while the fire is hot, though, or you forget where you were headed.
I don't think that any of this subtracts from the magic of the flash that comes when you get that really good idea, or the pride when you look at a piece of your own work and remember all that you did.
Update: The 'know it when I see it' quote was used by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart to describe his threshold test for pornography in Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964).
I can understand that people who already consider themselves as creative might not feel a need to figure out why.
I find it ironic though, that they say that the way to be creative is to not think about what makes them creative and that's what they find makes them creative. If this is so, then they ARE following the process, and they ARE thinking about it, and their process DOES work. For them, NOT thinking about it IS the process.
What I can't agree with is people saying they are not creative, or saying that others are not creative, without being willing to say what creativity is. Just as with anything else, your definition of creativity is very important to be able to understand it.
The idea that it is some mystical, unknowable quantity confuses Creativity with Inspiration.
The idea that it is something new confuses Creativity with Innovation, or Originality.
The idea that Creativity is only Creative when it is THE best, MOST original or MOST innovative is damaging, because it discourages people from trying to be creative.
In my neck of the woods, scrap-booking is a huge thing. Many, many of the women who fuel this billion dollar industry do not think of themselves as creative, though they are creating every single day. They would very quickly give all their friends credit for being creative, but would immediately deny it for themselves because of all of the above confusions.
There is an old story (which actually happened) of a congressman who was working on pornography law. When pressed for a definition, he said "Well, I may not be able to define it, but I know it when I see it." Basing law on this kind of nebulousness is unproductive at best. Everyone has different ideas about what constitutes pornography. For some, it means any kind of nudity. But most people would not agree that nudity is the only definition of pornography. For some, it is anything that is sexually stimulating. But everyone has different things that do, or do not stimulate them. So the definition ends up being dependent on community standards, which seems to work, unless you don't agree with the others in your community.
Community definitions of creativity can be just as useless, if they are not shared or explained.
I get into arguments with teachers all the time because they try to grade on creativity without teaching for it.
Nothing gets me madder than hearing "We are going to grade this project on creativity…" and when I ask them to define it, they can't even verbalize what they are looking for, just like that congressman.
What this often means is that to be successful, the student needs to come up with something that the judges have never imagined themselves or have never seen before. (Innovation) How can an inexperienced student overcome the teacher's experience? Only through Luck. Luck is not Creativity.
Sometimes the teacher will respond to beauty. So, the student needs to come up with something beautiful. How can they possibly guess what the teacher thinks is beautiful? Only through Luck. Luck is not Creativity, and neither is Beauty.
Sometimes the teacher will respond to hard work, but not often, and not without elements of Innovation and Beauty, because that is what the teacher believes they are looking for, without really thinking about it.
This is all very unfair because it means that only the lucky are deemed creative.
If you believe Creativity = Inspiration, then you don't think it comes from you. Therefore you are never responsible to be creative, nor can you be.
People who believe that Creativity = Innovation can be self-defeating. When they look at another's work, they often think…"Wow, that work is amazing. That's really original. I could never come up with that." Therefore, the other is creative, and they are not. What they fail to understand is that other could never come up with work like their own.
But there are ways to foster innovative thought. The advertising industry pays billions of dollars a year to do so. The problem is often getting to that original idea first, which requires effort. But for some reason, people don't believe that effort is creative unless they see it as SUCCESSFUL effort. And what is the definition of success?
Do you see the problem? And all the vagueness and nebulousness just feeds that problem.
You can't be successful if you can't define success. You can be lucky, but not successful.
So, the problem, in my view, is getting people to BELIEVE they are creative, so they WILL be; and also to DEFINE creativity and success so they can be attained.
The definition I use with my students is "Creativity = Making Stuff". If you are creating, you ARE creative.
For my students, if they are trying something that THEY have never tried before, they ARE innovative.
Beauty is so personal that THEY need to decide what is beautiful. I tell them when I think something is beautiful, but I try to have a very broad idea of beauty, and I don't equate it with success.
And the thing I fight hardest to do is teach them that ANY amount of effort IS success because it LEADS to success, and that the only way to fail is to NOT try.
I work hard to teach them that false starts and dead ends are not failure, but evidence that they have come a long way.
And finally, I teach them how to generate ideas by using lots of techniques that WORK.
Like: journaling; filling their minds with lots of images and concepts; trying combinations they have never tried before; paying attention to what inspires them and seeking it out; and manipulating their environment to encourage those things.
There's lots of formulas for creativity, but they all involve some kind of Passion as the driving force; some kind of inflow of information to provide fuel for the imagination, a willingness to work on the project or concept until the thing clicks. Sometimes you have to work on it, then walk away a while and let it incubate and sprout. You should strike while the fire is hot, though, or you forget where you were headed.
I don't think that any of this subtracts from the magic of the flash that comes when you get that really good idea, or the pride when you look at a piece of your own work and remember all that you did.
Update: The 'know it when I see it' quote was used by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart to describe his threshold test for pornography in Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964).
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
The Art Machine
2 min read
Kanchancollage kanchancollage.deviantart.com/ asked me to describe what makes The Art Machine work so well. This is quite a question, and one I want to answer correctly. I'm sure that good teachers everywhere use these principles, but for some reason, it's causing a stir.
1. Treat kids like human beings. This means having care and respect, don't lie to them, talk straight and be real. Say 'yes' to everything you can. Earn their trust by being fair and keeping your word. Use force as little as possible, but don't take any crap. Remember that their learning is more important than your teaching. Don't forget that they stop thinking about you the second they go out your door. Listen more than you talk.
2. Give kids a voice. We use our web page as well as traditional display space to let them show their work. We help them figure out what they want to say, how to say it the way they like and help them reach their preferred audience. We ask them what they want to do and give them choices every possible instant. We give them lots of alternatives.
3. We teach creativity and imagination as skills to everyone who will listen. We teach kids to use a combination sketch book/journal, and we help them fill it with lots of personal information and ideas. We use the classroom environment to reduce the risk of trying new things as much as we can.
4. We grade on effort. The students who work get good grades. The students who put stuff off and turn everything in at the last minute get lower grades. Kids who don't work fail.
5. We always teach What, Why, How in that order. The kids should always know why. They will learn how to do something gladly if they can see the value of it. If a person has a passion for what they do, you won't be able to stop them from learning.
Also, we hate being bored as much as the kids, maybe more. If we can't get excited about something, we teach something else.
I think that encapsulates the most important things about what we strive to do.
1. Treat kids like human beings. This means having care and respect, don't lie to them, talk straight and be real. Say 'yes' to everything you can. Earn their trust by being fair and keeping your word. Use force as little as possible, but don't take any crap. Remember that their learning is more important than your teaching. Don't forget that they stop thinking about you the second they go out your door. Listen more than you talk.
2. Give kids a voice. We use our web page as well as traditional display space to let them show their work. We help them figure out what they want to say, how to say it the way they like and help them reach their preferred audience. We ask them what they want to do and give them choices every possible instant. We give them lots of alternatives.
3. We teach creativity and imagination as skills to everyone who will listen. We teach kids to use a combination sketch book/journal, and we help them fill it with lots of personal information and ideas. We use the classroom environment to reduce the risk of trying new things as much as we can.
4. We grade on effort. The students who work get good grades. The students who put stuff off and turn everything in at the last minute get lower grades. Kids who don't work fail.
5. We always teach What, Why, How in that order. The kids should always know why. They will learn how to do something gladly if they can see the value of it. If a person has a passion for what they do, you won't be able to stop them from learning.
Also, we hate being bored as much as the kids, maybe more. If we can't get excited about something, we teach something else.
I think that encapsulates the most important things about what we strive to do.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Bragging Rights
1 min read
I know it's bad form, but I can't resist adding this to my journal.
My teaching partner, ahoteg.deviantart.com/ , and I were in the local newspaper for the second time, Nov. 30.
www.standard.net/topics/educat…
It is an extremely nice article about our program. www.theartmachine.org
But, not only that!
We have also been featured in a textbook for Art Educators by one of the most respected authors in the field, Michael Day.
www.amazon.com/Children-Their-…
Mickey also bragged us up when he presented to an art educators' conference in Nanjing, China!
Yikes!
My teaching partner, ahoteg.deviantart.com/ , and I were in the local newspaper for the second time, Nov. 30.
www.standard.net/topics/educat…
It is an extremely nice article about our program. www.theartmachine.org
But, not only that!
We have also been featured in a textbook for Art Educators by one of the most respected authors in the field, Michael Day.
www.amazon.com/Children-Their-…
Mickey also bragged us up when he presented to an art educators' conference in Nanjing, China!
Yikes!
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In