July from Irene --- Musing about teaching, part 1

 

Irene's wedge brush flowers and wavy vines are so pretty. My broken record comment is coming up - about how I hope to spend some time with my wedge brushes. I should just try those vines. They seem very beginner friendly.

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There was a break in post writing after I posted tip No. 8 and surely I have more than eight tips. Before I get into more tips I'm going to muse about how complicated it is to offer tips. I already mentioned how people can be disinterested in suggestions. Sometimes they are even offended. As I have said, that's the hardest part of teaching.

People show up for a class. They also bring their entire lifespan of experiences with making things and finding out what people think of their work. They might even be so self-critical that they can't see the parts of their work that is *working.* With kids, it's not appropriate to critique. They don't need a critical eye. The critical eye will evolve all on its own as the kid can see that what they had imagined is not what appears on the paper. 

It's very hit or miss with helping those older kids whose critical eye is evolving to understand the steps one takes to actually draw a likeness. So many kids as well as adults have horror stories about *terrible* art teachers who said mean things and *ruined* the experience for them. 

Then there are the people who really enjoyed collecting The Rules from the types of instructors who handed out The Rules that had been handed to them at some point. And most people are familiar with Breaking the Rules and all the sub-sets of how to break rules and here's where I decide that it might be impossible to teach art..... and yet.....