carrie or peter jacobson on fri 24 sep 99
Some more thoughts on this subject.
In my day job, I am the editor of a small newspaper. I worked my way up
through the copy desk. On the way, I taught lots of people to edit copy.
The most difficult thing for a copy editor to do well is hear the voice of
the writer and make the story speak even more clearly in that writer's
voice. It takes a fine ear to hear the voice initially, and it takes
discipline and temperance to keep one's own voice out of the story.
Then there is the concept of ownership... if you as editor leave your mark
on a story, in some respects, you become part owner of it. And that is not
an outcome you want, most times.
I think similar things happen in pottery. As a teacher of pottery, the most
difficult job I have, I believe, is to see and understand what the student
is trying to do, and help him or her do it, without leaving your mark on
the pot. Then and only then can I help him or her develop vision,
contemplate design and gain the skills he or she needs to realize the pot.
An easy thing for me to do is assert ownership: lay my vision of the pot
over the student's, and show him or her how to achieve that result.
But as soon as I do that, I believe, I am killing all creativity in that
student; am wrenching his or her ideas, visions and design away from the
heart; I am implying, too, that my ideas are better. And I am making that
pot my pot.
Finally, I am taking the easy way out. Easier by miles!
If I am to help the student, really, truly help him or her, I first have to
disavow myself of my own ideas of that pot. I have to see it through the
student's eyes. And until I have a crystal clear sense of my own vision, my
own landscapes, it will be difficult -- dangerous, even -- to seek my
student's vision, to place myself in his or her landscape.
I think teaching anything is way harder than most people believe.
Carrie
Carrie Jacobson
Pawcatuck, CT
mailto:jacobson@brainiac.com
goatnose on sat 25 sep 99
Carrie: Your thoughts are of the perfect
answer to the tension between your own
ideas and the ideas of others. Of this on-
going interface are the rigors of "teaching"
Art built. My personal conviction is that it
is not possible to teach Art; only to teach
the mechanics which permit adequate
implementation of ideas.
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