Blog Assignment One.

Assignment: Why do you want to be an Art Educator?

Response: Hmm, what a question. Whenever someone asks me that, I always feel like I have the most cliche, unoriginal answers: I like art. I like kids. I want to teach. Blah blah blah. Really though, those are my answers.

I love art; it is my passion and what drives me. I see beauty and art in everything. I have always wished that I could make films and take photographs with my eyes and ears, and have little movies to show people from my day to day life, from my eyes and ears. Then they could see how I see the world, with all of it's beauty and joy and sadness and possibilities. I think that if people could do that, the world would be a different place (and I really do think that). Art influences and changes people, in a whole world of ways.

I like kids; I enjoy young children, their innocence, curiosity, and how they have the wildest imaginations. My five year old cousin recently asked if she could see my boogers, and looked up my nose. She then proceeded to tell me that it looks like my boogers are having a tea party with a princess, and she meant it. She trapiezed away five seconds later. Children can be easily influenced but also set in their own beliefs - try telling a six year old that Santa isn't real. Most of the time, they won't believe you and will probably yell at you or get upset, and they'll continute to believe. They are wholly innocent in so many ways, and I wish that people kept certain aspects of that with them as they grew up.

I like teens too, as in midde school they are in that in between stage of growing up and staying young, finding themselves and becoming who they are. They are still in that stage in high school too. Middle school and high school students are still impressionable, they are (hopefully) open-minded and eager to learn. I think that two of my favorite books, The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and The Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger, both really embody this concept: the innocence of youth and growing up and learning and becoming your own individual, while still being influenced by others and becoming who you are by making your own choices and making your own mistakes.

I want to teach; teaching at an upper level would be enjoyable, as I feel that I could connect with the students more, relate to them and share experiences, thoughts and ideas. I could become a sort of mentor or tutor for students, informing them of artists and galleries and openings, while still letting them have their own minds and concepts and ideas. As an art teacher, you aren't meant to put your ideas into their heads, but to create a web of ideas for them to discover themselves. You can be the foundation of the house, but they have to build it themselves. With kids, you can delve into their world full of everything and anything. Their imagination can become yours, and vice versa. You can teach them all about art and get them to be excited and interested in it. You can create that spark that becomes their drive and passion for art. You are where it starts.

I guess that is more or less my answer.