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sv: teaching and critiques

updated tue 25 jan 00

 

Alisa and Claus Clausen on mon 24 jan 00

------------------
Joyce.........
This is the funniest writing I have read in so long. I can't stop reading =
it
and laughing all the more=21

Especically =22try that twisty trick=22=21
Oh, I am just dying of laughter.

Your teacher who could not watch makes me think of a teacher I had once upon=
a
time.
I got too close to the raku flame and instead of just shutting off the gas
(lightbulb=21) I proceeded to
somehow pull the entire jet out of the kiln, and finally shut it off.

I went inside to my teacher and started asking why it was hazy in his office=
and
WHERE were all those feathers coming from???

He answered it was the ashes in my eyes that were formally eyelashes and the
feathers were formally the stuffing in my down jacket, which I melted the =
front
of.

He really did not pay too much attention to me after that firing.


I have to read your post to my friends, OK?
Best regards and my sides really hurt.
Alisa in Denmark.

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: Joyce Lee =3CJoycelee=40iwvisp.com=3E
Til: CLAYART=40LSV.UKY.EDU =3CCLAYART=40LSV.UKY.EDU=3E
Dato: 21. januar 2000 00:25
Emne: teaching and critiques


=3E----------------------------Original message----------------------------
=3EI suspect Joyce A. is a fine teacher and somehow didn't quite
=3Ecommunicate what she meant......(ever done that? I have...just about
=3Eevery day.) I recall well my feelings four years ago when I took my
=3Efirst pottery class and hadn't caught on yet to having to be in class
=3Every early in order to claim an electric wheel... and always winding up
=3Eon the kickwheel... when I should have been the last person allowed on
=3Ethat big ol' Lockerbie. I think the teacher (my friend of many years)
=3Ewould have actually saved an electric for me in order to avoid his own
=3Eagony at watching my attempts to coordinate all parts... except I'd
=3Etaught or in some way been associated with almost every =22regular=22
=3Estudent in my class and he didn't want to be misinterpreted as showing
=3Efavoritism. I first kicked in the wrong direction...finally got that
=3Epart down...but then used wrong leg to kick in the right
=3Edirection.....try that twisty trick sometime. Then I got the wheel under
=3Econtrol, but THREW in the wrong direction......eventually got it
=3Etogether...just in time to have a young man tell me he much preferred
=3Ethe Lockerbie and would LIKE to swap with me for his electric. Later my
=3Eteacher told me that actually I seemed to be learning to throw as well
=3Eas any student even though I was making all the =22wrong=22 moves... but
=3Ethat he couldn't bear watching ...sort of like a fingernail on the
=3Echalkboard. I think I could have continued progressing even though doing
=3Eeverything the =22wrong=22 way, but once I learned how easy the electric =
was
=3Efor me, it was too late to change back... easy because I didn't have to
=3Emake so many decisions. Later, of course, I realized it was all because
=3EI have (like 70=25 of the women out there and about 35=25 of the men)not =
a
=3Ecoordination problem, but a directionality disability... nothing to do
=3Ewith small eye/hand motor coordination........ nor with being dumb or
=3Esmart...... we just seldom know exactly where we are in the world
=3Ewithout landmarks and/or maps... or kind and gentle friends who
=3Econtinually re-orient us.
=3E
=3EJoyce
=3EIn the Mojave thankful for the friends who've helped me when I've driven
=3Ein L.A., Chicago or New York City or London or Edinburgh or
=3EDublin (last three all directionality nightmares for yanks, anyway) by
=3Ekeeping their eyes on the road and reminding me of left/right etc.
=3EProblem was they did apparently somehow associate this with =22not quite
=3Ebright=22, as evidenced by statements about where to stop for light, how
=3Eto make a left, when to brake etc......when I was the one elected to
=3Edrive, in the first place, because they were afraid to drive in big city
=3Etraffic. Ring bells out there? Such stories usually do. There are many
=3Eof us about, as confirmed by clayarters in the past.