High School Art Experiences

I will limit this post to my experiences with art in high school (the whole story would be far too long and frightful to remember). I didn't take a lot of art classes in high school as I wasn't a very good art student (this realization was recently confirmed by my former H.S. art teacher). I never cared for the projects and was reluctant to try new media and processes, doing so only if I had to. I only wanted to draw, and even then, only the subjects or images that I cared about. I drew constantly, filling the margins of my notebooks until they were black, and kept numerous sketchbooks at home that I'd work from cover to cover. My drawings were rarely about personal issues, but I constantly tried to improve my abilities and make my drawing style changed and evolved continuously.

What I do know of high school students comes largely from my remembrances of my own H.S. experiences, along with my ongoing interactions and student field work with teeneagers in & out of school. Teenagers, especially in high school, can be very mercurial, with numerous changes occuring rapidly and often randomly. These changes can be internal, external, fleeting, lasting, emotional, physical, mental, social, real, imagined, important, frivolous, depressing, exciting, confusing, life-affirming and uncategorical - any or all of the above and more. The teenage years can be all these things and are often astounding and confusing in their impact on students' lives. With such a potentially explosive melting pot of emotions and hormones and feelings, coupled with the effects of our national / global / consumer / popular culture as well as possible familial, religious and economic factors, this can be an unbelievably odd and frustrating time in a child's life.

All of these factors could be seen as fears on my or others' parts when it comes to working with high school students. I can't say that it frightens me (as I already experienced it firsthand) but I must always remember that it can be a difficult time in the lives of my students. We all need to be aware of what may be cause for concern or what needs to be addressed in order to help students to deal with and possibly move beyond their problems. I believe that teaching high school students can be very enjoyable and rewarding, but to always expect the unexpected, either for good or bad. That fact, in and of itself, is exciting to me, as is the chance to promote student artwork that is self-reflective and allows for self-expression. The fact that young children wish to talk about their art does not disappear when they reach puberty - they need an environment that they are comfortable enough in to share their thoughts and feelings about their work. I know that there is a lot to be learned from working with students of this age, far beyond any example I could give, but I definitely feel that art can be an incredibly important aspect of many students' lives and be a cornerstone in how they choose to express themselves.