In telling you how I decided to be an art teacher, it seems worthwhile to explore where I was when I was a student in school (warning: it wasn’t all pretty)(actually, most of it is the tale of awkward social woe)
I loved elementary school. I had an easy time with the academic aspects and was a quiet, head-down-working kind of kid. The kind of kid that’s easy to teach and no bother. So my early experience was peppered with praise and I was offered responsibilities based on my good behaviour. Then somewhere around grade 6 I became aware that my peers had opinions about me and each other, and suddenly I wasn’t sure how to achieve. Who should I please first, the teacher or the kids in my class? My lack of social savvy divided my focus, my grades dropped, my friend group shattered, and then high school happened. There were so many teachers and new peers to consider that I had a hard time prioritizing my efforts.
Completely frustrated with rattling around anonymously in a big school, I transferred to a mini-school in grade 11 where I stayed until graduation in a class of 11 students. It was better at the mini-school, we called the teachers by their first names and we knew what their hobbies and interests were outside of school. The culture of the school was inclusive, democratic, student led and based on respect for differences. I loved it but I was still too scared and shy to focus on school in the face of the overwhelming social scene.
The constant social give and take wound me up so much that I didn’t recover until high school was over. Sounds rough and a bit crazy right? But there it is, years of my life wasted and full of anxiety over things that didn’t matter. But here is where it begins to get better. Life happened. I made decisions and followed them through, I failed at things, I made bad choices and lived through them, I learned to cook, to pay bills, to find my way even though it was terrifying and full of dead ends. And at some point I realized that the things that had made my time in school so hard were things that I could take back into the classroom as tools to bolster other kids who hadn’t seen enough in life to be able to see themselves clearly yet.
I didn’t grow up thinking that I would be a teacher, but I always knew that I would be an artist. I got a Diploma of Fine Arts from Langara College in 2001, and then transferred to the Alberta College of Art & Design where I graduated in 2003 with Distinction from the Ceramics department. I married, moved to the Okanagan and had two kids before I realized what I was meant to do. It wasn’t until 2010, when my oldest child entered school that I began to see that teaching art was something that might be right for me. For the next several years I volunteered at our elementary school and also at two high schools in the area, in their art classrooms. It opened my eyes to participate on the fringes of education as a volunteer, and I was hooked. I continued to volunteer until my youngest child was ready to enter grade 1 and then I made the move to Vancouver, to UBC, to start a new chapter in my life.
I am still shy. But now I know that I’m an introvert, and don’t beat myself up about it. Lots of people are and they need to know it as a strength, not a weakness. I am an artist, a profession often portrayed near the bottom of the food chain, but one I know has value for all of us in ways that we can’t easily articulate in words. I’m a cheerleader (not the pom pom kind) for kids who are different and who need someone to care. I wear my heart on my sleeve for them because I believe that caring needs to be seen and emulated to be passed on. And I don’t want them to have to wait to find out they are really awesome people until they’re 30, I want them to see themselves as amazing people now.
