About This Blog
When I first began flirting with the idea of becoming an art teacher, I looked online to read about the experiences of art educators and teachers turning to the profession for the first time in mid-life. Finding only scattered scraps of insight I could relate to, I decided to document my own journey to become a teacher in mid-life on this blog, and hopefully, also share my experiences as an educator long-term.
As I write this first entry, I am a woman of forty-one years. I hold a bachelor's degree in art, an education I began at UCLA and completed California State University, Fullerton. I worked in my early-mid twenties as a graphic designer until pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel syndrome forced me to prematurely quit my job. I then dedicated the next fourteen years to raising my two daughters, including seven years as a home educator, ten years as a scout leader, several years as a synagogue Sunday school teacher, and working sporadically as a volunteer and freelance artist and graphic designer.
After both my daughters returned to public school in 2016, I began adding to my freelance workload. However, I found that after a solid decade of dedicating my life to the education of children (both my own and in the community), that teaching has become my raison d'être.
This time in 2016 was not the first time it had occurred to me to consider becoming a teacher. I grew up as the daughter of a teacher, and spent some time substitute teaching immediately after college graduation, so I am certainly not blind to the challenges and realities of the profession. Some of these challenges, largely institutional nature, turned me off from considering the profession in my younger years. But the tempering of age and the intensity of the calling compels me to pursue this course in my life. And, it is my hope, that by choosing to enter the profession specifically as an art educator, I will enjoy more liberty than instructors in the core academics to implement some creative and unconventional methods to touch young lives.
Perhaps I still wear rose-colored glasses, and will join the ranks of many burnt-out teachers who have come before me. I like to think I have the maturity and resolve to have some sense of what I am getting into, but time will tell.
In the meantime, though I document this journey for my own benefit, I invite any other teacher, former teacher, or aspiring teacher to follow my progress through this blog.
As I write this first entry, I am a woman of forty-one years. I hold a bachelor's degree in art, an education I began at UCLA and completed California State University, Fullerton. I worked in my early-mid twenties as a graphic designer until pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel syndrome forced me to prematurely quit my job. I then dedicated the next fourteen years to raising my two daughters, including seven years as a home educator, ten years as a scout leader, several years as a synagogue Sunday school teacher, and working sporadically as a volunteer and freelance artist and graphic designer.
After both my daughters returned to public school in 2016, I began adding to my freelance workload. However, I found that after a solid decade of dedicating my life to the education of children (both my own and in the community), that teaching has become my raison d'être.
This time in 2016 was not the first time it had occurred to me to consider becoming a teacher. I grew up as the daughter of a teacher, and spent some time substitute teaching immediately after college graduation, so I am certainly not blind to the challenges and realities of the profession. Some of these challenges, largely institutional nature, turned me off from considering the profession in my younger years. But the tempering of age and the intensity of the calling compels me to pursue this course in my life. And, it is my hope, that by choosing to enter the profession specifically as an art educator, I will enjoy more liberty than instructors in the core academics to implement some creative and unconventional methods to touch young lives.
Perhaps I still wear rose-colored glasses, and will join the ranks of many burnt-out teachers who have come before me. I like to think I have the maturity and resolve to have some sense of what I am getting into, but time will tell.
In the meantime, though I document this journey for my own benefit, I invite any other teacher, former teacher, or aspiring teacher to follow my progress through this blog.
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