Note: To protect the privacy of our members, e-mail addresses have been removed from the archived messages. As a result, some links may be broken.

Lesson Plans


Re: clay

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
kprs (kprs)
Wed, 29 Jan 1997 18:37:04 -0800

Sidnie Miller wrote:
>
> Dear Bob, I teach junior high so it is illegal for under 18s to buy
> cigarettes in Nev. , but when I first introduce clay to my students
> I tell them that they can't make ashtrays--if they do I break them and
> they get a zero. If the kids in class think it's an ash tray--it is.
> I tell them that I hate smoking because I watched my father die slowly
> from it and that ash trays are what you make out of clay by accident
> with no skills--like first graders. Sid
> ###########################
> # Sidnie Miller #
> # Elko Junior High School #
> # 777 Country Club Drive #
> # Elko, NV 89801 #
> # 702-738-7236 #
> ###########################

Add to the list of "unsuitable" are bongs and other drug paraphanelia
that we old veterans have seen through the years. After I give them my
"you can't make anything that is drug or sex related" speech, in the
beginning of the year, I let them create away. Now, if I think any
project is blatantly one of the above (this does not include justifiable
pieces that speak on the topic of the above....which is a whole other
story in itself as one of my students made "Art in America" for being
censored from a Nabisco/Phillip Morris art invitational for doing a
piece on smoking and the negative effects), then I watch them do
drawings, and make the piece, and just as I am about to put it into the
kiln....ooopsy, Mrs. H sure is clumsy...Actually since I have only had
to do that once in 20 years, I think everyone in school eventually got
the picture! I tell them that they are learning the clay process and are
welcome to make bongs, pipes, ashtrays or whatever at home and have
their parents fire them, BUT the taxpayers do not want to have to
subsidize their bad and illegal habits.

Geeze, I am so mean, and a little nuts.

San D