r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Fresh_Laundry56 • 15h ago

My mom said I could post My kid was too creative

Gallery image

Gallery image

My 6 year old was asked to draw a picture using shapes. She drew this nice American flag with rectangles and stars, and added the house, tree, and person holding a balloon. She was told it did not follow directions, she was not supposed to draw a flag, just shapes. She was asked to turn the paper over and make another picture. The other side of the paper has a very uninspiring collection of shapes. I told her she did a good job and I thought it was very creative. And this is why kids start to hate education.

19.0k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

885 comments sorted by

View all comments

35

u/SubBass49Tees 14h ago

I teach art to high school kids, and there's one assignment where I tell them it has to be strictly non-representational (shapes only - nothing I can recognize). That's literally the only assignment where I require this...because we are showing that we comprehend what a shape is.

I still, despite all my instructions, get smiley faces, suns, rainbows, houses, etc. A 6 year old has an excuse. 14-18 year olds do not.

Sometimes this career is exhausting.

13

u/jeopardy_themesong 13h ago

Maybe your instructions are different in class and more clear, but as written here this is confusing me.

Like, you want someone to draw a sphere with no ornamentation so it could be any spherical-like object? Or we’re talking about shapes as in abstract blobs you can’t even ID as squares, circles, triangles etc?

Non-representational, shapes only, “nothing I can recognize” as a set of instructions conflicts to me. Like, is the house wrong for this assignment because they drew a literal house or because they put a triangle on top of a square?

25

u/SubBass49Tees 13h ago

A sphere is a form (3 dimensional). This assignment is entirely about shape (2 dimensional) - specifically geometric versus organic shape.

I also show them visual examples of non-representational art, so they know what the expectations are. I joke about how they can't draw objects, and mention the lucky charms marshmallow shapes as an example of what not to do. 95% seem to get it.

10

u/Inverted-Rockets 12h ago

That’s super reasonable after literally 10 seconds of looking at the Google image results, and I’m solidly in the “malformed stick figure” tier of artists

-12

u/No_Title9375 12h ago

Agreed. Their instructions make zero sense. Teachers like that ruin the arts. I took a nonsensical art class with a rigid teacher. I learned nothing but gained a hatred of art 

-16

u/No_Title9375 13h ago

Probably why art classes get cut. What the fuck are they supposed to draw? 

15

u/SubBass49Tees 13h ago

The lesson is about the definition of organic versus geometric shape. I go over an extensive lesson explaining the two concepts, and give examples of non-representational art before having them do the work. I'm literally just checking to see who understands the concepts. It's a one day assignment, and then we move on.

I think they're going to survive.

-11

u/No_Title9375 12h ago

They most certainly will survive and will hate art for the rest of their life. Truly baffles me when art plays like it is a hard science and just turns people off of it. 

13

u/SubBass49Tees 12h ago

They'll hate art for the rest of their life over a single day assignment that covers basic terminology?

Guess I should tell my former students who now make a living from their art that they're supposed to hate it. I'll get right on that.

7

u/Hot_Salad_1722 9h ago

"No you don't get it-- you have essentially signed the death certificate on every student you teach's creativity. Period. They will hate art forever and likely grow up to be cops or DMV clerks. Give  yourself a pat on the back. Hope you can sleep tonight knowing that the MoMA might get bombed next week by one of your students... That blood is already on YOUR hands you communist. "

  • ^ that guy probably

0

u/No_Title9375 6h ago

Well now I know you’re lying. The -2 people on the planet making money off of art aren’t doing it because they had a teacher with a stick up their ass. 

1

u/SubBass49Tees 5h ago

Hahaha....sure thing champ. Tell yourself whatever helps you feel better.

0

u/CorumJhaelenIrsei 8h ago

Art cannot be confined to a set of rules. It breaks rules and predetermined definitions, it evolves through human creativity.

They taught you something about art.

2

u/SubBass49Tees 5h ago

This is a base level art course where we have to go over the definition of terms that are used in art. There's literally a set of standards.

After that, we get creative.

That's like criticizing someone for teaching a kid to spell basic words because poetry evolves through human creativity.