Cheryl L Litman on mon 19 may 97
I really appreciate the guidance and suggestions everyone has been
offering. I have been teaching classes for ages 6-12 for about 3 years
quite successfully and have only recently started with the younger kids.
It's quite a different experience. I got started teaching the younger
ages because that's the age group there was an opening for at an Art
Council where I am trying to get my foot in the door.
Sam, I can really relate to your experience with your Mom. I'm almost 40
and I still struggle with the drive to be immediately "perfect" at
everything I try or give up. Looking back, I actually find it amusing
that I refused to learn any skill my mother could do well. To break away
I always tried things she couldn't or didn't want to do. I think partly
she was trying to live her life vicariously through me and I didn't want
any part of it - I felt smothered by her expectations. She had an
overbearing, dominating Mother as well and "tried" to raise me
differently, I can see that in retrospect as I've grown older. Now I
appreciate that she was just trying her best to make a better life
possible for me than she had.
I think too that as a society we are very hard on beginners in general.
Look around at how much the media ridicules people who try and fail. TV
shows (instant success in only 30 minutes - less commercial time),
newspapers, etc are always making fun of people for not being perfect.
You very seldom see people honored and respected for their dedication
unless that dedication has already paid off in being "the best". Anyone
who has already put in the time to master a skill makes it look easy and
masters are the only people newsworthy enough to focus on so we end up
with skewed ideas of what it takes to accomplish anything. We are also a
very materialistic, end-product driven society as a whole.
Enough babble, it must be too much sun from today's gardening!
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