Self Image

As we progress through the Historical Person Trading Cards, I am reminded of one of my favorite Picasso quotes:

"All children are born artists. The problem is to remain artists as we grow up."

(Having never seen the original source, I'm dubious about the actual wording, but the thought is clearly Picasso...)

Tonight, all of my little cherubs will be hand-drawing four identical 2.5" X 3.5" portraits of their current Historical Person... Them. They. Themselves. However, this task will potentially be a form of torture as, at the ages of 11-13, they've already bitten the evil fruit of self-derision. They "can't draw" or "look stupid" or a thousand other red flags that cue the observation that they're unhappy with their appearance, or at least uncomfortable with it, and/or they have lost the Artist Within.

This... is... tragic.

Read those three words like Captain James... T... Kirk. It will help lessen the pain of realizing that by age 11--possibly earlier--you, too, had let go of the hand of your Artist Within and watched it spin down the toilet drain of Growing Up. I watch beautiful, interesting, amazing, inspiring, heroic children who make me want to reinvent myself a thousand times over every day fall into this insidious snare and it breaks my heart.

What is Growing Up, after all, but conformity? We all need to conform to some extent - to be, in the words of Adrian Belew, a member of the tribe. I prefer, though, to learn the fine art of camouflage. I wear my camo--button up shirt, nice shoes, khaki pants--but underneath it all, I'm... not conforming. Just enough to slip by the security system of The System.

I think one of my great challenges as an educator is to pass that on to my students. It's a contradiction, just this side of hypocrisy. I expect them to line up at the appropriate times. I expect names on papers and pencils sharpened before class, if at all possible, for the love of Pete (and how come Pete gets all the press?). I ask those things to make the transitions of a public institution flow more smoothly, so that there's more time for the Good Stuff.

Or am I just rationalizing my part in the Great Crime?