Alisa and Claus Clausen on mon 13 sep 99
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Emne: Re: Sv: Re: teaching children
Hi Earl,
A reminder that
The wee little ones are not invading your clay domain.
Hi Alisa,
A reminder that
You are darn right the wee little ones are not invading my clay domain.
They can come in and muck about when someone else wants to teach them (I'll =
even
condescend to fire their wonderful little lumps of clay).
My 5 yr. old daughter uses my studio, sometimes with friends, BUT they
respect what is off limits
Yeah, yeah, I let the neighborhood kids come into my studio during =
school
break (we are both on break, this is important to my point) and make =
projects
too. That's not my point.
I think it has a lot to do with our responsibility as role models-
to teach, inspire, inform, encourage, mark boundaries and renavigate=
if
necessary.This is closer to my point. This is what teaching is all
about
My toes are fine. I admit however, I wonder what you do when you are
spending
all day at a school. Teaching, caring, sometimes hugging, sometimes
drying tears. I got into teaching at age 40 because I wanted to make a
difference in childrens lives. I have worked at an at-risk (poverty, broken
homes) school in a not so good part of our city for 10 years. Visit =
sometime.
I also admit I hope you are not in the classroom if you do not
like children for the reason that they are children. And this is
exactly my point. Many teachers put so much into their days at school that =
they
don't have any more energy or reserves to spend on children after school.
Especially in an area that they are using as a release from the rest of the
cares of the day. Teaching children is different than teaching adults. I =
can
teach adults after a day with kids, I find it difficult to teach more kids.=
I
know teachers that have dedicated their lives to teaching who chose not to =
have
children of their own because they are concerned that they couldn't deal =
with
them all day and at home as well.
Finally, lighten up a little, most responses I've recieved =
recognised
that I was at least partially trying to be funny.--
Hello Earl again,
I think your response to my message was condescending and made me feel
badly.
I do not know you personally and v.v. Unfortunate as it may be, the =
only
voice I have from you and all the other clayarters is what is written in the
message. I read your message and understood it for the literary value it =
had.
I did not read into black and white your intended wit and humor. You wrote
about a subject that I use a great deal of my energy on and am very happy =
for.
>From reading your sentiments I could not determine what you did at school,
whether you were an educater, administrator, caretaker, etc. I sometimes
respond to clayart messages on an editorial note on subjects that are close =
to
my heart as is this one is.
My message had honest thoughts and honest concerns and honest questions =
to
you. I am disappointed in the rare instance that I chose to use Clayart as =
an
open forum for thoughts and ideals, I am presented with your response that I
perceive as obtrusive and flippant. I used time to capture my thoughts and
express them in a way that I thought would be useful to further the thought
process on this subject. Had I realised that your original message was just=
for
fun's sake, I obviously would not have responded in the depth that I did. I
only wish you had maybe thought long enough after reading my comments, that =
I
took your message seriously, and a simple message from you =22just =
kidding=22 would
have been better than the unnecessary condescending reply.
I like to think that we can use this list to voice our thoughts and =
insights
with mutual respect from all sides. I wish you had instead written =
something I
could use to think about, reflect on or implement. You are apparently a
champion of educators, and therefore I am sure you could offer more than =
teasing
comments that did little more than insult me. You have apparently a lot to
offer, so why not offer the positive expertise you have on the subject that
maybe a bunch of us could benefit from? Lighten up and yeah yeah are not =
useful
to me. You have no idea what my personality is and I happen to have a quite
serious writing personality in general, the only personality trait of mine =
that
you can know. I cannot say I want use clayart as an open forum again in the
near future as you can understand it does not make me feel good to get a
response like yours to a mesage I wrote in good faith.
My mother immigrated to America from France and taught school and =
tutored
for free for many years. I immigrated to Denmark and well, the apple does =
not
fall far from the tree. I teach ceramics to children and adults for free. =
I am
impressed and influenced by mother's passion and compassion, and I am proud =
and
satisfied to do the same. I am sure I would feel the same about your
accomplishements if you gave me the oppurtunity, instead of dismissing me as=
a
humorless, uninsightful reader. I hope we share our experiences as =
educators at
a later time and we can benefit from those discussions. I know I am not the
first to feel badly about a response, but thin skinned or not, it was not
appreciated. For now, it is back to straight forward technical questions =
and
responses. You did not make my day Earl=21
In good faith again,
Alisa in Denmark.
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