Two of the things that absolutely confounds me about teaching art is the sheer apathy of children and the unreasonable fear they have at even trying to do something new. Paper is not precious (as evident by the millions of paper wads that fly around my room) and pencils do grow on trees so the only reason I can see for my students being so resistant to doing new artwork is fear. Fear of looking foolish, fear of not being able to do it perfectly or the fear that they might actually have to use their brains, whichever one of these is true, it rules their lives. I grade on effort...you try, you pass. But still I consistently have about a fourth of my total students that completely fails every grading period. Now I'm not the greatest artist in the world and certainly not the greatest teacher, but it confounds me how much I have to fight to get high school age kids to even put a line on a piece of paper. I always felt this should be the most relaxing part of their day. To hear them tell it...it is the most stressful.
Apathy is the other thing that just kills my teaching spirit. The kids just don't care. I don't expect them to be overjoyed with every project or in love with every piece of work that they do, but the regard the work that they do in my class with the same regard they have for the tissue they blew their noses on. Most put nothing of themselves into it and fewer still cherish their work in any way. They fail to realize it is not just the product but the process. They are so used to quick finishes and instant gratification. They time and effort that it takes to create truly good art is tantamount to a jail sentence.
There are days I wonder why I even bother trying.
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