Most of my students are children. A lot of them are forced to come here after school and many days I kind of feel like I am running a government-funded babysitting service. At least this is how it feels at first but I have had very few instances where the kids didn't eventually come around and actually start to enjoy and look forward to being here for the 1 hour that they are a week. Some of them end up taking great pride in their accomplishments and I can see that not only do they not complain about arriving in my class, but they really look forward to it.
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I remember a couple of cases very vividly even though they first started coming quite a while ago. One kid who was around 8 years old was nearly in tears he wanted to NOT be there so badly. He would not listen to me and sometimes would even go out of his way to destroy the materials that were given to him to use for whatever we were doing. This all changed rather rapidly though. Once he looked around and saw that the other students and kids were actually enjoying what they were doing, he slowly but surely started to participate. This was all in the same day mind you. By the end of the first lesson he was actually calling me over to have me revel in his work and by the time he attended the 2nd week he enthusiastically entered the classroom.
Almost all kids will doodle or have coloring books of some sort in their youth and I am sure there are a lot of frustrated parents out there that have seen their child's artistic endeavors all over the living room wall.
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I believe that there is an inner artist in all children but most of them never receive any sort of outlet or guidance for this. Several of my students over the years have gone on to pursue the arts in higher education and one of them actually makes a pretty fantastic living doing exactly that. One of the other ones from over a decade ago is now the director of a public art center in another city. She contacts me from time to time since now, if she were here in the same city as me, she would technically be my boss. I don't get insulted by this, I think it is amazing and I love that I was at least a part in her journey to doing something that she enjoys for a job.
Kids generally are creative but they just don't have the materials in order to engage this side of themselves. Public schools will frequently only have a year or two of "art class" and I have met these teachers and how they are just as tired as any public school teachers is. Art class in public schools is kind of known as the class where the kids get to run wild for an hour and not many of the students actually take any of the work seriously. Art is one of those classes that you have to work pretty hard to get a bad grade in after all.
I don't know how the entire world works, but if you live in North America there is a really good chance that your community has some sort of free art workshops for kids that happen at a community center every week. These programs are normally free and there really isn't much of a reason to not at least try them. I have had very few students that dislike the classes enough to never return and most of the students actually look forward to the classes as a highlight of their week. Is it free babysitting too? Well I guess so but it's only an hour so maybe it just gives Mom a chance to go grocery shopping in peace.
So if you are a parent I can't think of any good reason to not seek this service out. It's going to go on with or without your participation in it!
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