My Entry for Constrained Writing #29

“We’re going to draw today.”  My high school art teacher told us. I was taking Beginning Drawing, my first elective in 9th grade. I was excited about it.    

One day, another student asked her “What are we going to do today?”    

Our teacher responded: “Draw. That’s what we are going to do EVERY day, so don’t ask me what we are going to do. My answer will always be the same. Draw. We’re going to draw.”

I remember her finding it funny, and some of us students found it somewhat amusing as well. It was sort of a “smart ass” reaction that you sometimes hear teachers do, when they have taught for a while and have started allowing the students to sort of get under their skin. I’ve seen it before. Their comments like that can be funny, if you see their point of view.   

Years later, I think about her words sometimes as I teach my own art classes. I remember them as I watch students file into a classroom after recess. These are younger students, usually in elementary school, and I don’t have the same amount of exasperation with them that my high school art teacher probably had with some of us (not me, of course!) High school students can be annoying and rude, and sometimes they just don’t put a lot of thought into what they say. I get it. I understand why she responded that way so many years ago. Now, I just sort of find it funny, what she said to us.

I have repeated her words to my young students in the past, finding it somewhat funny – only to find that they don’t really see the humor in it, even IF I add in the story. So, I’ve found it’s best to keep it to myself and allow myself the satisfaction of knowing the inside joke as I announce: “We’re going to draw today.”  

Thanks for hosting these, @svashta!