I like the idea of abusing art supplies a lot (and I've done so on many occasions myself), but on the other hand I have had exactly that kind of discussion with my significant other just a few weeks back when talking about education... while it is really necessary to let kids (and grown-ups, and the rest of us) use their creativity and imagination as freely as possible and to have fun and discover new ways of doing new things with new materials, it is also necessary (at least with children) to give them special tasks to see how well they perform certain tasks that kids should be able to perform at a certain age - like cutting along a given line or painting inside the lines. This may not be what doing "real" art is like, but it helps discover development problems at an early stage.

With other words, I absolutely understand what your student did and I really, *really* love it that the kids had fun, but I also understand to a certain degree why there was this task the kids were meant to perform. Although I cannot quite see the horror of doing it the next lesson... but maybe that's just me being too relaxed. (°v^)

I too have an art class failure story lurking in my mental closet like a terrible skeleton. Just the thought of trying to sketch a church makes me shudder... urgh. I feel much more comfortable with words, perhaps that's one of the reasons why?

I had to laugh at your student's story because two years ago, I was volunteering at "Colonial Camp" at my kids' school. The event was for 5th graders. I was in charge of helping them make necklaces. The staffers told us how we were to have the kids make the necklaces (which beads in which order, etc.) Three moms were volunteering. One treated the thing as if it were going to be a Harvard admissions requirement. (The staff intimated there may be an impromptu "pop quiz" at the end, so she turned it into a lesson. "This is waxed cotton cord. Can everyone say that?"

The other mother and I threw that notion out the window before we were finished with the first group. We did ration the horn beads to ensure everyone got some (there weren't many), but other than that, we gave the kids free rein. I thought the other mother was going to pop something, she was so upset. "But what about their TEST?!"

"This is an on-campus field trip and hands-on learning activity," I finally said after ignoring this query at least ten times. "What about them having fun?"

This really gets me as a parent because our kids' educational lives are so regimented (at least where I live). Most of them spend all of their extracurricular time in supervised, scheduled-to-the-second activities. How are they going to know how to entertain themselves, or what makes their hearts sing if they're never given the freedom to find out? (I haven't raised my kids to be regimented soldiers and I've been called on the carpet for it by more than one parent, and a few teachers, too.)

Very much like the issues around body image for women, I have internalized so much of the crap around what is Ok and what is not. I am so grateful to have people like you in my life to help counter the voices and remind us all of the joy in our inherent creativity and expression.