Challenges In Substituting And Art Class

     If you’re like me, you used to be a substitute teacher. I’ve written about some of these exploits before and I’ve got a book’s worth of tales still untold. (Publishers, if you’re reading; that’s not a joke.)

     Substituting is one of the best jobs I’ve had that I also hope I never have to go back to. It was a challenge every day and intrinsically chaotic. It was also a new adventure and perspective to take. Substituting was exponentially more valuable to my growth as an educator than any formal class.

     One day, I was subbing as a classroom aid. At some point in the day, it was art time in a new room with a different teacher. With no direct assignment and the students reasonably focused on the art teacher, I took to wandering the room, looking for an opportunity to be useful.

     The art teacher showed a model of the assignment for the class. The task was to draw a randomly zigzagging pattern across the paper. Once there were three or four lines, the students were to see what scenes presented themselves from the chaos.

     The model had several spikes that had become the feathers of a bird duo. Another collection of points had become the spiky hair of a character watching the birds from behind some tall grass.

     Let me take an aside to say, I love these kinds of creative games. Creativity upon a blank canvas is fine but creativity with hinderance is more interesting. If necessity is the mother of invention, obstruction might be the mother of imagination. I’m a rule-follower by nature, in no small part because I like the ingenuity that can come from restriction. I occasionally put similar restrictions on myself when writing these articles.  

     Anyway, back to the art class.

     I walked by a boy who had drawn a shark. It wasn’t a shark that he had extrapolated from a series of zigzags per the assignment; it was simply a shark.

     I leaned down and asked where his zigzags were. He told me he liked drawing the way he had. I asked if he understood that wasn’t the activity of the day. He said he did. I then asked if we could draw zigzags off the shark and come to the assignment backwards. He said he didn’t want to.

     Before I could say more, the art teacher happened by, looked at the shark, and commented how fun the image was. I don’t know if she didn’t notice, wasn’t looking for an argument, or had simply decided that if the child was drawing, her job was done. She approved of the shark so, I wasn’t going to be able to redirect the student. I left him to his work.

I think about this stalemate often. I wanted the child to follow the rules because they’re the rules. More importantly though, those specific rules were there to foster growth of artistic perspective. The student should have engaged with the assignment.

     That said, I don’t think there is a “wrong way” to do art. If this student already had a taste for artistic expression, part of the goal of the assignment had already been met. I would offer drawing a design that you already know how to draw over and over is a bit of an artistic rut, though. Breaking such a rut is the point of creative games.

     I believe in self-expression. I also believe in rules. A rule that prevents you from expressing is a problem. A rule that encourages a different kind of expression might be the challenge needed for growth.