hmmmm

I've been thinking a lot over this past week about teaching and writing and "arting". I think one thing that is standing out is the fearlessness people have until they think they can't do something. The younger the person, the more they seem to experiment because nobody, including themselves, has told them it won't work or they can't do it.

There is a saying I had up in my room the first time around teaching that said, "If you think you can't, you're right." In Proverbs there is a verse that says, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." Sometimes I really believe that it's not about getting more information, it's about changing the way we think.

I want to have intelligent experimentation for myself and my students. What I mean is knowing where to start with the materials and push the envelope with it. Where to start with an idea and push with that too. Intelligently choose something to solve an artistic "problem", a specific desired outcome.

I also want to help the kids put on the teflon helmet around their minds when it comes to criticism. Maybe not that the good, constructive stuff doesn't stick, but that the negative words that limit and tear down don't. That's what I want for my friends too. I want a lot, but nobody has told me I can't have it, and if they did.....teflon.