Trust

(Image from http://www.etchingsetc.net/photo_4.html)

Okay, so I didn't answer the prompt on trust.  I was ADD before there was such a thing, so it's probably just a good thing I responded at all and didn't blow up the interweb while in the process...

One of the biggest aha moments of my early art teacher career (back during the Herbert Hoover administration) came in my second year in the LaGrange art room (actually, Science Lab, but who's counting).  I had a boy in fourth grade who was a superstar of drawing nature.  He could draw so well, not photographic but just really, really effective.  He was quiet, hard-working and just a kind of "get-out-of-his-way-because-he-is-just-better-than-whatever-I-can-try-to-teach-him-so-I'd-better-just-lay-low."  I praised him and built him up a lot because he wore it well, not at all big-headed.  He seemed so happy to be in the art room, and his classmates enjoyed him and went to him for ideas and strategies, especially with drawing trees.

We were going to have some artists and artwork recognized in the building, and I chose him as one of the recipients.  I told his classroom teacher about it, figuring she would say, "Oh, yes, Jehosophat (not real name) is my top dog."  But instead, she told me, "I'm so glad.  Jehosophat is my biggest struggling student.  He can barely write his name, does poorly with math, and doesn't enjoy himself much at school because he's so far behind."  I was floored.  I told her that this boy was one of the bright lights of the art room, and was in my opinion an advanced student.  His teacher, who was by the way one of the best in the building, told me, "He lives for art class.  He loves it and he feels like he's a great student, if just for that one period."

The art room should be the safest place in the school, because any child can succeed.  I don't mean every child is going to grow up to be Rembrandt, or Dr. Seuss, or even the guy who designed the Ritz cracker box, but he or she can blossom and thrive in the art room because there's really no way you can mess up, unless you don't try.  It is a place where every student should be able to trust his or her teacher to create a safe place.