At the end of last year I decided to reach out to my own students. I took my students to the computer lab. I said “ I want a reflection on this class. On the second part I want you to address
this question, ‘how have the arts impacted your life?” Ot was pretty cool to read their responses.
Some of them were pretty brief but one girl was a surprise. She wrote a full page answer. She said, “ I know I haven’t always been turning things in on time and I haven’t been doing as well in class as I would like. But this is been a really hard year for me. I ran cross country. That was a big part of my identity and who my friends are. Well, I hurt my leg and I couldn’t run anymore and I felt kinda lost. Like, where do I belong in this school anymore if I can’t do this with my friends anymore? The place that I ended up gravitating to was my arts class. When other
students that I really respected their artwork, had positive things to say about my artwork. They liked my work. That gave me so much confidence it helped me feel like I wasn’t lost as a person it made me feel worth and value. You might not even know this but this class has really changed my life this year.”
She is back as a senior this year. She has completely blossomed. Yesterday I noticed other students walking in to class and she would come up and give them a hug welcoming them to arts class. That kind of feeling of community and confidence are things we can do in our arts classroom to make a real difference.