Exploring Art Teacher Myths (Ep. 366)

Welcome to Art Ed Radio, the podcast for art teachers. This show is produced by the Art of Education University, and I’m your host, Tim Bogatz.

Now, we have been having some conversations on the AOEU team lately about art teaching myths and just teaching myths in general. Particularly wisdom that has been passed down from art teacher to art teacher. But it isn’t quite right. Or maybe it is advice that used to work but doesn’t work any longer. Or maybe it works for some people but not for you. And I think all of those types of wisdom or advice I think are worth discussing because I think there are a lot of myths out there that we maybe need to chat about and maybe need to debunk just a little bit. So I decided to invite a couple of friends on the show. A couple of people that you hear from often on Art Ed Radio. It’s Amanda Heyn and Janet Taylor. I’m really excited to speak with both of them. And Amanda gets the credit for getting this particular episode up and running.

So I ask them both to come up with a couple of their favorite art teacher myths that we can debunk. So I’m excited to dive in and do exactly that. So let me bring them on now.

All right. I am welcoming two guests on now. Janet Taylor, how are you?

I’m great. How are you?

I am also doing great. And Amanda Heyn, how are you doing?

I’m very excited to be back. I think this is going to be a fun episode.

I hope so. We’re going to chat, like I said in the intro, all about art teacher myths. I don’t know if we want to call them favorites, but just some different ones that we want to share that we’ve heard a lot about, or ones that we have something to say about. Because I feel like there are just a ton of myths and suggestions and ideas floating out there about teaching, about art teaching specifically, that are just, I guess, not true. So Amanda, I’m going to start with you for this question. Why do you think all of these myths are out there? And why should we spend some time debunking them?

Yeah. Well, I think they come from a lot of different places. I think one place they come from is just a misunderstanding of what art teachers do every day. We’ve all heard the myth, oh, that’s so fun. You must color all day. Or whatever. And then I think some sort of come from within. I think we might talk about that you have to have a hole in your clay project or it will explode, and that just-

One of mine for later.

Yeah, it just gets passed down through art teacher lore through the generations. Or how did we all learn to draw that cool S in middle school, and why do my kids know how to draw that same S?

Right.

Yeah, that blows my mind.

You know what I mean? What is happening? They just permeate our collective consciousness. And I think some things might be left over from a time when teaching was different, and they’re trying to compare things from back then to now. So I don’t know. Janet, what do you think?

Yeah, I mean, I think some of these things will really never go away. They say art students are strange and moody or whatever, like emo or goth. And I’m just like, what tween or teen isn’t strange and moody? I mean, I’m just going to ask that.

I’m still strange and moody.

I mean, seriously. There’s that. But then there’s these other myths out there like art should be an easy A, why are you breaking that? Or just that kind of misconception. I think those are really important to correct and educate, advocate.

Yeah, absolutely. And I would just say those were a lot of the myths that I dealt with. And just over the reputation the art room had when I moved to high school and took that over just like, oh, all the art kids are smoking pot and not accomplishing anything else. So I’m like … but then a couple years later, you have the valedictorian taking some art classes and doing really well. And you’re like, yeah, no, this is for everybody. Everybody can do this.

I think it’s good to, like you said, educate people and help them understand what we do. And I think that’s a big reason for us to break down some of these myths and like you said, help people learn about everything, all the great things that happened in the art room.

Okay. So let me ask you, just thinking about these myths that sort of permeate, as Amanda said, go from generation to generation. So what is the worst piece of advice you receive? Or the worst myth that made it into your undergrad education or advice that came to you as a new teacher?

Can I start?

Yeah, please do.

Okay. So I was told by multiple people, don’t smile until Christmas. Or probably winter break is how we say it these days. Do not smile for months on end, take a really hard line, lay down the law. You have to whip the kids into shape or you’ll never get anything done. And while I think that is based in a grain of truth, I also think it’s really harmful. Which I think is another reason we need to work to debunk some of these things because new teachers coming in may not have the experience or the colleagues to tell them or whatever, that these things are not true.

And so there is a grain of truth, excuse me, in that. You do want to spend time on expectations, you do want to spend time teaching your procedures and your processes. And also really revisiting those as many times as needed to get them down, especially at the beginning of the year. And also, you will not get anywhere if you don’t have a good relationship with the kids. If the kids think that you don’t like them, you are not going to be successful in teaching any of that stuff. So that was one, I think just based on my personality, I couldn’t do luckily. And so I didn’t take that advice and it worked out okay for me. But I know there were teachers who started at the same time with me, who really tried to do that. And it ended up kind of backfiring.

Oh, for sure. So Janet, did you hear that when you were in undergrad or when you were starting?

Yeah. Okay, so I am a teacher by second career. So my undergrad is more my grad school program. And first of all, that feels like so long ago. When I was thinking about the myths that I was told, I was like, “Oh, I do not remember anything from that long ago.” But I had to basically phone some friends because I was curious what their bad advice had been told. And that was one of them. And I was like, huh. I did not even … I don’t think I ever was told that. So I thought that [inaudible 00:07:08]-

Okay. So, one of my undergrad methods course, my professor said, “You’re going to hear don’t smile until Christmas.” She’s like-

Interesting.

“This is a load of crap.” And like specifically went out of her way to tell us all the reasons that’s bad advice. So-

That’s incredible.

That was an interesting one. But anyway, Janet, I’m sorry to interrupt you. What were some of the things that you heard from friends?

Yeah. Okay, so these, I guess, are more when they were thinking back about teaching in general, not specifically to art teaching. So one of them was say yes to everything. And I think they meant like principal [inaudible 00:07:46], committees, coaching. Because you’re told as a new teacher, you must do everything that they ask you because-

Yeah, and they’re like, “This is the best way to impress your principal.” I’m like, “I don’t want to impress my principal. I just want to do my job.”

I think we have multiple articles and podcasts about setting boundaries and saying, no.

Yes, that’s very true.

So there’s that out there. Okay, another one was more general. Any advice that you get that is saying, you must do something or you must not do something, is throw that out the window.

Fair.

If the advice is not flexible to your situation or needs, just it’s bad advice. And I thought, “Oh, that’s interesting.” And then another one was basically you should follow another teacher who’s really experienced and follow them to the T. Do what they’re doing because you’ll become a good teacher that way. It’s like-

Wow.

Yeah, that seems like terrible advice.

Yeah, I was going to say, nuance exists. I don’t know. I mean, isn’t that the point of student teaching? You find out what works for you, you should have hopefully a good cooperating teacher. And you can copy the ideas that work and change the ones that don’t, rather than just copy them to a T. So I don’t know, Amanda, have you heard that to just emulate or copy an experienced teacher?

Yes. Well, I didn’t have this experience, I had excellent, excellent cooperating teachers who let me fail, who let me develop my own things, who gave me advice and pushed me. But I definitely had some people in my cohort who had the opposite experience, who the teacher just wanted them to follow everything that they did. And so I wonder too, if some teachers come out of school sort of using that as a crutch and aren’t given the time to explore in their undergrad program.

And I also think with all of the things that Janet said, it was interesting, I was thinking, “Why would somebody tell somebody that? Like that’s awful advice.” But I really think it’s probably coming from a good place, they want to set you up for success. But I think that maybe in the last 10 years, maybe we’ve, as a collective body of educators, maybe learned more about the power of failure and the power of stretching yourself and the power of developing your own ideas and not just following, for lack of a better word, like the textbook. Like this textbook teaching or whatever. But that’s interesting. So no, I didn’t personally hear those, but I know friends who have.

Yeah, that is interesting because I have not … and I mean, we tell our kids that all that, we don’t want our kids copying things. We want them doing their own thing and learning their own things. So, that’s interesting to me.

Okay, I gave everybody some homework. We needed to come up with a couple of our … I don’t know if we want to call them favorite myths or just specific myths to our teaching or teaching that we want to talk about and hopefully debunk a little bit. So Amanda, we’re just going to have you go first with all of these.

Okay.

So what is myth number one that you wanted to chat about?

Okay, myth number one is you have to dress in rainbow colors, especially if you teach elementary arts.

I love it. I love it.

Yes.

Okay.

Wait, does that work for high school, you must wear all black?

Yeah, maybe’s the opposite.

Well, we can chat about this later.

Okay, all right.

That’s exactly what I did. But anyway, go ahead.

Okay. So I need to say a caveat here, which is I did specifically go shopping for NAE this year to buy colorful clothes. Because up until this point, the most colorful thing in my own personal wardrobe was a navy blue sweatshirt. So if that gives you any indication of where I’m coming from on this, and I did teach elementary. So I’m talking about these incredible teachers on Instagram that have a full rainbow closet. They have rainbow pants, they have rainbow shoes, they have rainbow shirts, they have rainbow overalls. And don’t get me wrong, they are cute. I like this style. It’s just not for me.

So first of all, I say good for them. That is amazing. It is definitely a creative outlet. It brings joy to other people. And I personally think it’s really cool to see everyone else’s personal style. But like I said, that’s just not me and it wasn’t how I dressed when I was teaching. Now, that was a long time ago now. So I also think that social media sort of plays a part in perpetuating this myth. Because while it’s great, it also makes it really easy to play the comparison game. But just 30 years ago, teachers didn’t have to wear giant turquoise jewelry to be good art teachers. Did you have that art teacher? Just like giant [inaudible 00:12:42]-

Oh, for sure.

Okay. Right. Teachers today don’t have to wear rainbow clothes to be good art teachers. But if that is you, you do you and I will be cheering you on from the sidelines. I did want to give just an article shout out from our archives. We had a past writer who wrote an excellent article, maybe we can link to it. Her name was Lee, who wrote about wearing coveralls every day. So she had five sets of coveralls, she decorated the back in some really cool ways. I think one had a color wheel or something, and that was her uniform every day. And so every day she knew what she was wearing. And I thought that was so smart. And I think if I were still in the classroom, I might adopt something like that.

Yeah. I 100% did adopt something like that where I just had three pairs of black pants that were all the same, and a big oversized art club hoodie, also black. And that’s just what I wore every single day. Black pants and my hoodie. And it worked. It was beautiful. Every morning you spend zero time thinking about what you’re going to put on, and I loved it.

Okay, but what about your colorful sharpie? Was that in your early years?

I was in my early years when I thought I needed to be professional. Again, it goes back to the art room did not have a great reputation. And so I really felt like I needed to put on a shirt and tie every day and show people that I was a professional and not somebody who’s just coordinating the pot smoking in my room. So yeah, and then I used to match my sharpie to my tie each day, which-

That’s right, that’s right.

Was ridiculous, but also brought me a lot of joy. So anyway, Janet, did you want to chime in on that? Or would you rather give us your first myth?

Oh my gosh. I don’t have rainbow clothes. I have to shout out, I guess to Abby Shakka with her amazing tie dye, though.

Yes.

I mean, she sports a lot of that going on, and I’m always impressed.

Very true.

I think she makes most of it, doesn’t she?

She totally makes all of it. It’s incredible.

All right. How about I move on to the next one?

Yes. Let’s hear your myth.

All right. So this particular one is very near and dear to my heart, and that artistic talent is inherent or innate. And so I’m sure that it’s near and dear to every one of you out there too. And I have to say, so even my personal business, I have a little side business, I teach courses and sell my art and stuff. And my tagline is literally, everyone is creative.

And I think that’s what, as art teachers, we strive to advocate and communicate and educate people on. Is that everyone has this kind of artistic side or artistic talent. And just anything else, we know that art takes a lot, a lot, a lot of practice. And a good example of this would be those … I kind of love them because they’re great advocacy tools. Those videos where people show their like, I drew this portrait when I was in high school. And then here’s my portrait the next year and the next year, and they keep going. And they’re just these incredible growth that you see. And it’s like, yeah, that person started off really strong. And then look at them now, they obviously put in the work and effort to get there. They weren’t doing that at 10 or whatever. But I also think that people equate “talent” with realism, like artistic talent.

Yes.

Oh, for sure. For sure.

So that’s like a whole nother rabbit hole-

We could do an entire podcast on that.

A whole nother episode. Yeah. So that being said, just like anything, some people are and do have genius in the arts, and some people have natural innate talent. Meaning they pick it up quickly, they see things in unique or special ways. Just like some people have more tendencies towards math or writing or whatever. I feel like there’s this misconception that since we all started off in an artistic way, we all hold crayons, do some little drawings, whatever it is. That we should just assume that it doesn’t take any practice.

So this is, like I said, special to me, and I do like to spend time combating this. If this is a hill I’m going to die on, this is probably one of those. So advocacy, educating about that, showing students work from level one all the way through AP. Like one student’s progress, I think is a big-

Right, right.

Piece to show that growth and practice. And often when I teach classes, even in my high school, I talk to them about like math. You can’t do algebra without learning how to add and subtract first. So don’t expect to be just this amazing out-of-the-box artist. So you just need tools in your toolbox. And I think that’s actually been a really helpful way to talk to even adults about it. I think they like, oh, I get that now, because maybe I’m a CPA or something like that.

Exactly. But I mean, just like anything, you have to put in the work. And yeah, like I said, the more you can educate people about that, the better off we’re going to be.

Okay. So my myth, one that Amanda mentioned at the beginning. Okay, is that art teachers just sit and paint all day. Obviously that’s not a myth amongst art teachers, but I think it speaks to the idea of how we’re thought of around the school. What reputation we have, what people see when they look at us as art teachers. And so like you just mentioned, Amanda, it shows the importance of advocacy and showing people what we’re doing in our classroom, what we do all day is not just finger painting or whatever you may want to say is out there.

And I think showing the growth, like you mentioned, showing what kids are doing, what you’re doing. That’s good for you, that’s good for your program. And most importantly, it’s beneficial for your kids, for people to know all of the work that goes into our jobs and all of the things that we’re doing with our students. So all of that can be incredibly valuable.

I feel like that’s a myth I would like to be true. I would just-

Oh God, I wish it were. Yes. All right. Amanda, would you like to give us your second myth?

I would. My second myth is that you have to put on an art show every year.

Oh.

Yes. So again, we have probably over 30, 40 articles, podcasts, whatever, about putting on art shows, from planning to the day of, to non-traditional art shows. The drive-through art show. We featured that Lindsay Moss and Sarah Kioski did, or faculty shows. We have a lot about art shows. So if you wanted do an art show, that’s wonderful and we have things to support you. And I also did one most years that I taught, I went way over aboard. One year I baked over 1,000 cookies-

What?

And they were-

Like how do you have time for that? How did you do that?

This was before I had my own children, and they were rainbow cookies. I mean, it was silly. It was very silly and I should not have done that. But the year I did not do an art show was my very first year of teaching. And I would suggest no one do an art show their very first year of teaching.

And also whatever other seasons of life where it’s not good for you to have 80 to 150 extra hours of work during the school year. Maybe you’re moving, maybe you’re a new parent, maybe you are taking care of a family member. Whatever it is, maybe you’re mentally tapped out. If you do not have time to give or energy to give to an art show, it is okay not to do one. It is okay to sit it out for a year.

That said, I do think that teachers should always be thinking about different ways to showcase student artwork, but that can happen in much smaller, more accessible, more, I should say, easier ways throughout the year. Does not have to culminate in a big gigantic showcase. So you can keep your bulletin boards updated, you can do small frame displays in your office, you can use social media, you can use your school newsletter. There are so many ways where you can do it in a small way, but in a way that is still impactful in showing what is happening in your classroom. So, that’s what I have to say about art shows. Did you guys both do art shows?

I did art shows every year. I love that stuff, but I 100% understand if other people don’t or they don’t have time. So I would say, if you can do it, it’s worth celebrating. If you can’t do it, that’s fine too. No shame in not doing one. And I don’t think it should be an obligation or an expectation.

Right.

Yeah.

All right. Janet, would you like to hit us with your second myth?

All right. So this one again, is a good teacher one. You should plan your curriculum for an entire year. It should be planned and ready to go. You should be ready for your school year, yeah.

Okay. So I get it. Some people are really about planning and have to have it all figured out. I get that. And some people also like to take that and use the same thing year after year for whatever various reasons. I get it. I’m not knocking it, I’m not doing that. But basically for me, I am not that organized.

That’s exactly what I was going to say.

Things happen.

Guess which one of the three of us had their curriculum planned out for the whole year?

Are you giving me the stink eye on the side?

No, no, no.

Okay, all right.

No.

All right. I feel like, first of all, there’s so many things that happen throughout the school year and students attendance changes and I don’t know. There’s just too many variables, and I need to be very flexible. So basically what I do is I start off and I plan a lot in the beginning just to kind of feel good that I’m in the right direction. And then I feel like things kind of flow from there. And usually have a general scope outlined, I have what skills that I want my students to come out with the end of the semester, end of year. I have basically my units.

And then I need to figure out how things fit, I need to know my students. Every year the students are different, each class is different. Some students need a lot of time, some students get bored easily. You have to know when to shift things, make smaller projects. Then maybe I can make this unit larger or whatever it is. So I don’t know, I’m all for it again, if you’re a really planner like Amanda, or if you’re much more loosey-goosey like me. I’d say either way, it’s one of those myths again, you must do this.

And I will say, although I planned it out, I never stuck to it. It made me feel better to have a plan. But the plan always went out the window probably by, I don’t know, January for sure.

Did you get more anxious when you couldn’t follow your plan though? Did that give you anxiety?

No. Because I think I just felt like I was … like you said, you have to follow your kids’ interests or you have to learn your students. And so if I couldn’t do a project, that was fine. I at least was able to say, “Okay, I can’t do that. What were the skills that I was going to teach in that project? And how can I modify that or fit them in differently?”

I think I also get like ADHD bored on everything. And so I’m constantly like changing. Constantly like, “oh, I don’t want to do that project again. Even though it was cool, I want to try something new.” And I don’t know.

I’m in awe of anybody who can plan their whole year. But yeah, I’m always just going through, like you said, it’s responsive to the kids, what they’re interested in, what they’re capable of. And then, yeah, I’m just like, “Ah, I’m bored of that one. This seems like fun.” Or, “This looks really interesting. Let’s try this.” So I’m always just changing it up and finding all kinds of different things.

But like you said, we’ve talked about throughout this whole episode, you have to do what works for you. So yeah, I think that’s some good advice.

I need to talk about my second art teacher myth, one that has bothered me forever. And Amanda, you mentioned it at the beginning, the idea that you have to poke a hole in your hollow clay piece, otherwise it’s going to explode. And I just need to tell everybody, that is not true. I think it is one of those things that just gets passed from art teacher to art teacher, because we’re so scared to have explosions in the kiln. We’re so frightened of it. And everybody’s just overly cautious about that. And for whatever reason, that myth is just … I don’t know, continues to perpetuate itself.

And honestly, it doesn’t have anything to do with air. It has everything to do with moisture that’s in your clay. And I had Laura Irmis on a couple weeks ago, and she’s going to come back, we’re going to do a podcast specifically about ceramics. So I really want to talk to her about that. But honestly, we’ll get into details then if anybody’s dying to learn more about this. But yeah, you just have to make sure your clay is dry. You can candle your kiln, fire it slowly, and 99% of the time you’re going to be just fine. You don’t have to poke holes in all of your ceramics. Anyway, I’m getting a little fired up about this.

I’m just thinking about this. I wonder if it’s a self-perpetuating myth because poking a hole will help it dry faster and more thoroughly. And so I wonder if people have better luck with poking a hole because they’re clay … but it doesn’t have anything to do with the hole. It has to do with what the hole is allowing the clay to do.

I don’t know.

Maybe, maybe. I don’t know. Does a needle tool really help it dry faster inside? I don’t know.

That’s what I’m wondering. Is there really any benefit to that?

Oh, I’m thinking of a pencil size hole.

Okay.

It’s usually like a needle tool though, right? I feel like I need to research this now more. I’ll listen to your podcast with Laura.

Okay. I’ll send you some literature, Janet.

Okay, please. I’m curious. Curious people need to know.

All right, well let’s close it out, though, with just something that can actually be beneficial for teachers. So can you share just, I guess, one good or just actually helpful piece of advice that you think every art teacher should know? So Amanda, we’ll let you go first again.

Okay, great, I really like this podcast. My piece of advice is a little mantra that you can repeat to yourself when you feel that sort of comparison, jealousy creeping in. Which is good for them, not for me. It sounds so simple, but it’s so powerful. So if you see somebody doing something that you think you should be doing, if you were a good teacher, you would be doing that. But it doesn’t really quite fit what you actually want to do. That’s okay. Good for them, not for you. Other people can do awesome stuff like wearing rainbow outfits, like putting on an art show. But that doesn’t mean that everybody has to do it and it certainly doesn’t mean that you have to do it. So good for them, not for me.

That’s excellent. Excellent. Janet?

All right, my one actual helpful piece advice is stop doing color wheels. I’m just kidding. I love me a good color wheel. I’m just kidding.

That’s another-

Sorry, sorry.

Okay. No, for real though. Kind of along the same lines with Amanda is, you do you. Who cares about what other people are saying? Those myths that are kind of out there. And just be authentic to who you are as a person, as a teacher. Wear your rainbow colors, wear you’re black, who cares? Just keep on learning and growing as a person, as a teacher, set your boundaries. And remember that whatever is happening, you’re doing the best you can with what you have each day. So just kind of keep going in that direction.

Yeah, I don’t think I could say that any better. Yeah, I would just echo what both of you said. The Teddy Roosevelt quote, that comparison is the thief of joy. I think is applicable, especially when you aren’t spending too much time on social media or too much time looking at what other art teachers are doing. Just do what you can to be your authentic self, like Janet said, and do what works for you. Do what works for your kids. And there’s a lot of advice out there, some of it great, some of it not so great. But you just have to take the pieces that are going to work for you and work for what you’re doing and follow those as best you can.

All right, Janet and Amanda, thank you both. We really appreciate having you on, and this was a really fun discussion.

Thanks, Tim.

Thank you.

Well, obviously there are a lot more art teacher myths out there than the half dozen that we talked about today. Maybe we’ll do another episode in the future. But just a couple of closing thoughts before we leave today. First, I think it’s important to share and make sure that we are all doing what’s best for our students. Like Amanda said at the beginning, a lot of these myths can be wrong and some can actually be harmful. So I think it’s good for us to talk about those things, to share information, to share best practices. And make sure that we’re all helping each other to become better at what we do.

Secondly, I’d really like what Janet said at the end of the conversation, which just boils down to you do you. It’s up to you as a teacher to figure out what to do in your classroom, figure out what is best for you, and figure out what helps you be your authentic self. So think about that, use that information and let it help guide you as you put together a classroom and a teaching practice that works, that works for you and for your students.

Art Ed Radio is produced by The Art of Education University, with audio engineering from Michael Crocker. Check out the links that we have in these show notes, a couple of articles that we mentioned during the discussion today and some other good reading. But thank you, as always, for listening. And we’ll be back with you next week.