Best teacher moment: “forget everything they taught you before. They weren’t teaching you at all.”

[@michaelcopson9251]

School teachers are good at there own subject but not always the best motivators.

[@stephanieadams8734]

Nice Video! Now, how cool to stop those limits set on us by others. Let's all prove them wrong!!

[@DanielleComesBack]

Yes-it still blows me away that I have harboured these feelings for literally 25 years and for no reason other than to be held back. I hope you’re blasting through these beliefs too! ❤️

[@chrismoore8279]

As a kid with dyslexia, I found high school very challenging. I couldn't write well, and was behind my classmates in mathematics. I wax ontrack to drop out of school. But in year eleven (we have thirteen years of school), I had a history teacher who encouraged me to believe in myself. He made sure I had good class notes for exams. He helped me understand how to structure and write essays. He gave me a little extra tuition, which gelped me to pass history and advance to year 12. His teaching helped me to develop a love of history. Without his help, I don't think I could have succeeded. In my history class there were thirty-five students. Thirty-four students passed. I will always remember him as the best teacher I ever had.

[@DanielleComesBack]

What a great turnaround. It sounds like you were perfectly positioned to receive what that teacher was giving you. It's truly magical when we run into someone like that as we're growing up, especially if there's something other teachers previous would have deemed a "problem," like dyslexia. It's great that your teacher didn't fall into that and instead showed you that you have a gift for history!

[@cinnamon-spice]

As a child at junior school, we had an art class. There were various materials to choose from, and I made made a daffodil from a net curtain. At the end of the class the teacher chose my creation to discuss. I was so excited, but my feelings of pride were short lived. He held it up at the front of the class and proceeded to shame me and my creative efforts. He said I was selfish to waste something his wife had kindly donated and that his 3 year old could do better! That shameful criticism stayed with me my whole life. I married an artist, and was in awe of his work, but never dared attempt anything myself. Fast forward 40 years, I enrolled on a night school beginner art course. The teacher was awesome and so encouraging. Then the dreaded day came when he chose my piece to hold up in front of the class. I felt sick to my stomach, and had a flashback to that awful day at school as a child. But I needn't have worried. He praised my piece and said I had a naive style that the Masters would love to be able to do, but for their training in how to paint "properly". He was probably being very kind, but what a difference it made to my thinking, and how I perceived myself. I do love naive art, it's a style that really speaks to me. 😊

[@DanielleComesBack]

"Naive art" makes me think of "primitive" or "folk" art. Is that what you mean? I like that style too. Fine art is obviously lovely in its own way, but it's inaccessible and usually only found in textbooks. It's so nice to see and touch folk art and get a sense of its creator, too. Traditional fine art, while beautiful, is not very concerned with divulging what the artist is doing in the process. Anyway, I'm sorry about that art teacher. I went to a fine arts highschool and the visual arts department was very much interested in that: traditional fine art. Very little time was spent discussing modern or folk art. Much time was spent learning photo realism and that stuff, which I find dreadfully boring. I remember saying to the teacher "hey! Guess what! They have cameras now! We don't have to paint photo realistically anymore!" I admit I was being bratty, but I still stand by that point even today. I am glad that even after so much time had elapsed you found one of those great teachers who was able to put the ignorance of your old teacher out to pasture and give you permission to keep doing what you love. That matters a lot!

[@cinnamon-spice]

@DanielleComesBack Yes, Naive art is a similar style to folk art but without the cultural aspect. It's usually done by artists with no formal training. Two who immediately spring to mind are British artists, Jeremy Mayes, with his colourful villages with clusters of houses, and Beryl Cook, famous for her comical fat ladies. Whilst I admire the technical brilliance of classic art, it seldom speaks to me. I love the simplicity, quirkiness and vibrancy of naive art. As for the dreadful teacher... I really don't understand why some people choose the careers they do. He had no place working with young children. He once accused my sister of staring at his private parts!

[@kevinhornbuckle]

Subsequent Life Events would be a good poem.

[@DanielleComesBack]

Meaning…I should just write about things post secondary? Sometimes things get blended.

[@kevinhornbuckle]

@ Sometimes Things Get Blended would be a good poem (like Chinua Achebe’s tragic novel Things Fall Apart). It is fun to visualize you in that first college writing class. It reminded me of mine, and the nice teacher at the community college. We did not fully appreciate her talents at the time. She did not expect us to, of course.

[@troydudley5258]

That's deep, To bad I did not know you in H.S. I was that kid that would do or say anything to anybody but hated bully's. Prolly would have said something like why don't you read us some of your stuff Walt? My GF in H.S. used to write me epic letters in calligraphy that I could not read or understand....She was much smarter than me...:) I'm sure you were that same type of girl.

[@DanielleComesBack]

The letters aspect to your story resonates with me. I had a boyfriend in highschool who lived in another province. We wrote letters to each other (because no other technology existed beyond telephones at that time) and I loved doing fancy drawings and handwriting in fountain pen on them. I'm sure postal workers adored all my crazy notes and drawings on the envelopes! Anyway, I'm sure you would have been a refreshing person to know during that time of life. It feels so lonely for those of us who are quiet in highschool. No worries about that teacher--he did read some of his own stuff and it was terrible!

[@troydudley5258]

@@DanielleComesBack ...Funny, I did not think about writing her back..:) We used to sit in the car getting our heads right before practice and I would read her letters which usually contained a poem she had written. Of course my friends evolved their selves in this ritual of trying to decipher her poems and letters from the heart they came to look forward to it each day. A girlfriend of one of these boys told her and she was horrified. After learning of the full reception of her work I could tell from her eyes she was beaming. So, Yes. We would love to hear some of yours as well.

[@josephmarkus9629]

9 of 10 high school teachers settle for their job because they cant handle the REAL job. Abuse of authority is their revenge on the world. After winning a local art and wine logo contest over my 2 art teachers in high school I never got more than a C after getting straight As for years. I have run a graphic design studio in Brazil and California for over 30 years now. NEVER let somebodys opinion get you down, just do better and compete to be better! Keep at it so later in life you have no regrets! Rock on!

[@DanielleComesBack]

It makes sense that I did let this high school teacher get to me. I was in an incubator for that to happen, I'm afraid. But 25 years have elapsed. It's important to let it go and forgive. I don't want regrets--or more than I already have!