>Christa,
>It will work better if copy it into a new email and send it, instead of an
>attachment.
Ok, I'll try that but it might be too many lines.
Tales Told out of School by Christa Wise
It has been slow to warm up this spring, but from a teacher's point of view
that hasn't been all bad. If you recall your school days, the serious
stretch of time between Christmas and Easter break offers little respite
from gray skies, early evenings, endless homework, and full work weeks. An
occasional contrived but badly needed little holiday like Presidents Day
brings some relief, but mostly we hunker down, focus on our tasks, and just
get through it. Miserable weather of the typical lake-effect variety
actually seems to help us maintain our plodding momentum.
Sunshine, on the other hand, acts like a brain-numbing drug releasing what
precious few inhibitions adolescents have to produce unusual behaviors.
Even in January with snow on the ground, a day of sun will bring out
shorts, sandals, albeit with socks, and little cropped tops. In a
decidedly 90's way, beauty parlor enhanced "training tans" start to appear
in February getting ready for the consummation of daydreams in the escape
to the tropics during spring break. On days when the big H on the
weatherman's map is settled over Michigan, I know it will take stern
direction to keep the kids on task.
Not that I don't sympathize. We have all gone to club meetings with boring
speakers or ineffectual chairpersons who cannot seem to move an agenda or
make a point. Possibly we have even been tempted to nod off. Personally I
feel no meeting should last longer than two hours. Club members generally
have the benefit of a little stimulating coffee and a tea sandwich or a
cookie or two. It's not like that in school.
It is hard work to remember what work a full day of school is. Never mind
the mental effort, just the physical endurance required to sit on hard
plastic seats for nearly seven hours without being able to walk around,
chat, munch, or attend to other essentials takes discipline. To engage
your brain to perform effectively takes an extra effort of will that sun
streaming in the window seems to paralyze.
I remember an early morning economics class in the spring of my senior year
under the sunny skylights on the dusty, attic-smelling fourth floor of my
old high school. Mr. Johnson with his monotone delivery tried to interest
us in balance sheets and budgets. I used to sneak menthol cough drops, the
only kind of "candy" you dared get caught with in my day, so I could inhale
sharply for a wake-up jolt when my eyes started closing. As an artist,
every margin of my book was full of doodles drawn to help pass the time
which rendered my book "valueless" at resale. On the end pages I
exquisitely lettered my own law of economics class, "The amount of doodling
in this book is inversely proportional to how interesting the calls is." I
do remember.
So this week when legions of sun worshippers returned from points south,
their brains already softened by the sun, and when the long anticipated
spring weather broke, it became very hard for teachers and students alike
to stay focused. Certain disciplines do it better. The math teachers are
masterful moving with great logic from step to step, problem to problem,
and concept to concept. Math and science teachers even walk briskly and
explain things precisely. The English and social sciences can indulge the
thoughtful and redirect their daydreams with stories and searches for
meaning of the never-ending question of who and why we are. However, the
rhythm at my end of the building is different.
Even in the dead of winter the art room has a certain edge over the
academic disciplines. Kids may actually walk around the room to get
supplies and inspiration, talk around the table about important things,
like who is going with whom, where the party is, and that outrageous get-up
someone is wearing, and do things with their hands, neat stuff you get to
keep. If your art teacher isn't too crabby that day, you might get to
listen to good tunes on the radio, and, if you share, you may eat the M&Ms
in your pocket.
But spring is what we do best. Painting and drawing "on location" fulfills
the ultimate inside fantasy; you get to go OUTSIDE! Packing up our drawing
boards and watercolors, toting our new camp stools, you'll see us drawing a
harbor coming to life, capturing nature unfolding, and "painting the
light." Paying attention to these details in pigment is a small trade for
the freedom of being "out there" and a balm for the restless soul.
As the temperature rises and the actual number of days left is intuitively
known by the entire student body, I, for one, am truly happy to be teaching
students who are rewarded for their doodles, and where the enjoyment of the
class is directly proportional to the number of these drawings.
