Teaching People

[Anne Westlund]

What are your experiences teaching people how to craft, draw, paint, write, sing, dance, anything creative? Are they always positive? Does your patience wear thin after awhile? I'm curious! Leave your thoughts here.

I taught my mom how to make Sculpey beads last weekend, and earrings too. She already knew how to string beads. I had to be patient and not too critical. She is now the proud owner of a necklace and earrings, she lost the bracelet at the mall today, but hopefully will get it back, ala Penney's Lost and Found dept. I also taught my friend, Kari, how to crochet. That took more than one day, now she is a faster crocheter than me, much faster.

[Dan Goodwin]

It's easy to forget that not everyone is into the same creative stuff we are or with the same passion.

There was a thread on here before where we talked about "the look". For me a good example is music, where I wax on about the intricacies of melodies, the way the guitars chime, how the music crashes in as the lyrics express a feeling of love of euphoria or despair, the way the drum pattern shifts 6 minutes 13 seconds in, and a hundred other things I just hear in a favourite song.

Most times the person with me will give me "the look" - somewhere between confusion and what on Earth are you talking about and say: "Um, yeh ok. I just thought it was a nice tune..." ha ha...

[Anne Westlund]

Yes, I think some people just want to have fun and play. That's OK too!

[Quinn]

Anne- These are wonderful questions you pose. Thank you. I teach children about art-making at a studio in Chicago and absolutely LOVE IT. My ultimate goal when working with children is not to teach specific techniques (which I do when appropriate or necessary), but rather to teach them how to activate their innate creativity...at least I TRY to do this! It is a very rewarding process, because what it really comes down to is my responsibility to notice their natural ability and help this creativity emerge as a visual representation. I feel greatly rewarded when I notice a once-shy and self-doubting child build the confidence and self-conviction enough to share their true, beautiful self. How empowering, really.

Jane- I liked what you wrote when you stated, "We teach, i think, because we want to share our passions and interest and some really benefit from it and others dont. Sometimes it is fulfilling, sometimes it is disappointing. Always we should see it as positive... its a new life experience after all! some people need that experience, even if not right for them ultimately, in order to move them to the next one."
I agree, and as teachers we should always be striving to see the positive aspects of our students without becoming disappointed when they don't feel inspired or don't develop the same view point as us. I think nurturing all people's creativity, (even when they might not believe it exists within them at first), is the sure path toward their empowering, self-appreciative, creative self-discovery and expression.

[Anne Westlund]

Quinn

As a child I loved arts and crafts class. It wasn't until High School art classes that there was so much more emphasis on the right and wrong ways to do things. *sigh*
Luckily, I still love to do crafts. Welcome to CoachCreativeSpace!!

Anne