I’d be lying if I said I don’t pick favorites as a teacher. Well, not pick per se, but there are certain students who stand out from the crowd… Those students who in ways both obvious and inexplicable, remind me of myself.
As a student, I saw myself in my teachers, or rather I saw who I wished to be when I grew up. And now as a teacher myself I find that it also works in reverse. I see myself in my students. Not in their perpetual bent neck autonomous scroll through TickTock, their latest slang, or swigging of Bang energy drinks before an 8 am drawing class. No, rather it’s in certain student’s dogged pursuit of perfection. Their choice of color palette for a portrait. Their attention to the minutest details in a design.
I’ve been teaching for four years and every year I learn something new. Now, at the culmination of this spring semester I’d say that lesson is that teaching is reflective. And in more ways than one. Not only do certain students mirror my work ethic or propensity for the color pink in their artwork, but the energy (or lack thereof) that we each bring to the classroom effects one another. Having been on both sides of the teacher’s desk, I can say with some confidence, it’s the teachers who are enthusiastic about the subject that they teach who are the most engaging, the most inspiring, the most memorable. I think, or at least I hope I can count myself among their number.
As a teacher, I try my best to make an impact. Some days a lecture falls on deaf ears. Other days, a reminder of an impending deadline goes in one ear and out the other. What brings balance are those students who have that extra spark. That spark of inspiration when they add a contrasting color to their pastel drawing. That spark of intuition during an artist spotlight lecture when they recognize the painting on the screen.
“I am grateful for the lessons I have learned in between. For the teachers who I once saw myself in, only to flip the script and sit behind the desk myself. ”
I recently attended the Artist Talk of the current Drake University Artist in Residence at Mainframe Studios, Mica Ferrin. Even though he and I are separated by age, gender, style of art, even choice of medium I saw something of myself in him. Or rather, my former self. The new kid on the block in Drake’s fourth floor studio, wondering how to possibly fill that seemingly eliminable space with art but also dreams that cannot possibly be contained in one space no matter how tall the ceilings. I have been there. Physically yes. But also mentally and emotionally. There is an innocence at that age and a sense of unfulfilled potential that is yet appealing. But I would not chose to go back. Rather, I am grateful for the lessons I have learned in between. For the teachers who I once saw myself in, only to flip the script and sit behind the desk myself.
Just like the perfume-heavy hyacinths (from of course, one of my favorite students) now sitting on my desk at my own Mainframe studio, teaching to me, means growth. It means sitting in the seat of the teacher, but also still inhabiting that of the student. Of seeing myself reflected in the twenty faces following my voice and my pen stroke. Just like those soft pink petals, it’s what keeps me striving forward, reaching for the sun.
