The Best Art Teachers and Feeling Special

At our last teacher training meeting, I asked our Scribble teachers about their favorite art teachers. As each of us shared memories of our favorite art classroom experiences, certain themes emerged. Here they are below; an unscientific survey of what makes the best art teachers: 

“She made me feel special.”

There was a lot of talk amongst us about being made to feel special in the art classroom and we drilled down on what that actually meant both for the teacher and for the students. Not everyone can be special; it’s inherent in the definition of “special”. But a great teacher sees EVERY student for what they bring to the art studio and makes them feel like their contribution is valued. Our teachers who mentioned this also talked about being treated like an artist or like an adult; and in response to that, I can only say that great teachers and specifically great art teachers not only act like their students are artists but actually respect children as practicing artists and their students know this.  

“We got to use special materials.”

Again, it’s not necessarily that these materials WERE special but more that the teacher MADE them feel special. This is another trick of the trade of great art teachers: we can make a pencil feel special by letting our artists deeply explore all that a material or tool can do! And yes, the art studio is indeed a place where students get to use materials that we don’t have access to in the rest of the school. And yes, this is special. 

“We got to listen to music.”

Being able to listen to music as we work is a huge highlight of being in a great art studio and it represents a couple of overarching ideas. First, the teacher respects and trusts her students enough to work and listen to music at the same time. The teacher considers her students practicing artists. Second, is that listening to music typically helps artists get into a flow state: a wonderful process of creating work that all artists aspire to, not only because it produces good work but also because it feels good to be in it. Third, and here we go with “special” again, but listening to music in school; that’s special. 

“We were able to work independently and make choices.”

Again, so much of being a good teacher is about creating a feeling of independence for students. It doesn’t necessarily mean that a teacher lets their students run the show: it just means that artists in their class feel that within the constraints of a project, they have choice and agency. This relates (like everything above) to a teacher’s trust and respect for his students as well as the feeling of the art classroom being distinct from the rest of the school and school day.  

As the year unrolls, we’ll be picking apart each of these characteristics of our favorite art classrooms to see how they are implemented and what challenges we face (both practical and conceptual) to realizing our best art teacher selves in reality.