These first appeared in March of 2012 and I’ve added a few memories to them . . .
My Second Teaching Job
I ended last week’s article with the headaches I had from teaching grade-school art to over 1,000 students a week. I decided to try teaching high-schoolers and got a job back at my old high school — Tech.
You might ask what was I doing jumping from the frying pan into the fire! Really, Tech is an amazing place with so many opportunities it’s a shame more students don’t take advantage of it. Back then though there was a lot of overcrowding and my first sophomore art class had 42 students walk in to a classroom with only 24 art tables. Needless to say the students were sitting on the heat registers, the back table and nearly in each other’s laps. That was soon resolved with the hiring of an additional teacher.
Tech’s art department didn’t have just plain art like most schools — it had fine art, commercial art, craft art, stage craft, jewelry making, and photography! It was also a very formatted program, which meant that if you were in the second six weeks of fine arts you learned Calligraphy— everybody learned Calligraphy.
When I was an art student myself in this very disciplined art program at Tech, I thought sometimes I just couldn’t draw another charcoal of that bust of Caesar. But after going to college and realizing how my training surpassed other students in less rigid schools, where they said “draw anything you like,” I was glad I was required to learn all those skills. I know that “draw anything you like” sounds creative, but if you are a serious art student you have to learn the basics of design and color, learn to draw three-dimensional and how to handle all the different mediums (pencil, charcoal, oil paints, acrylics and so on). Without training it would be like handing a new student a violin and saying play anything you like — oh what a horrible sound!
Being back in my old high school was like the old television show “Welcome Back, Kotter” from the 70s. One thing I couldn’t bring myself to do was to call my former art teacher, Miss Phemister by her first name, like you would do a colleague. She was always Miss Phemsiter to me and we exchanged Christmas cards until her passing (over 35 years). She was the greatest art teacher I ever knew and that is why I went to Herron to become an art teacher just like her. Well, believe me I was never a “Miss Phemister” no matter how hard I tried. The discipline problems in the classroom were overwhelming. Luckily many high school students who didn’t like school just didn’t show up or slept through class. It was a daunting task to keep them interested and productive.
One thing that hindered my teaching was my vertically challenged stature. I’m just barely over 5 foot. Can’t even say 5’1”, so even when teaching grade school, I had many 4th graders bigger than me. Plus I was only 21 when I started teaching—just a kid myself.
Another problem was theft, so everything was under lock and key and I wore a chain around my neck with all those keys — sometimes I felt like a prison guard. But those students who liked art and tried and worked hard, made it all worth while.
There were discipline problems, but nothing like grade school. I remember thinking I’m so glad I’m teaching them art and not an academic class. I remember having to write all the words down on the blackboard for a poster I had assigned. Some could not spell “Earth” for our Earth Day posters.
I got to teach craft art classes to freshman — it was a half credit and most everyone took it — art interest or not. I had never taken craft art myself (fine art major) so it was all new to me too. We made billfolds from leather, enameled jewelry that needed to be fired in a kiln, weaving, linoleum cutting and all sorts of other crafty projects.
During that first semester, the teachers throughout IPS went on strike, because of the overcrowded conditions. We didn’t want more money, we just wanted a manageable sized classroom. The union was behind us and we protested. I was pregnant at the time and helped make the signs and went door to door with a petition to sign, but the other teachers wouldn’t let me march in the protest. Our entire Art Department (I think there were 9 of us) were arrested and taken to jail. I wanted to be there with them so bad, so the news reporter could say 9 1/2 teachers arrested at Tech High School.
Poor Tech has always gotten the worst publicity, but it is one of the finest schools in the country. Back then there were over 5,000 students on a 76 acre campus with 12 buildings — it was like a small college and still is. They offered aviation classes where they built a plane, carpentry classes that meant building a house in the neighborhood, even millinery classes to learn to make hats (I know that sounds Victorian — but I am old).
Even now the school has magnet programs in Health and Math/Science. My son graduated in 2002 with a Health Magnet Certificate in Dentistry.
All of us Tech Alumni are so proud to have come from such a remarkable school with such a history. My son says we got “street smarts” from the experience. Even my father-in-law Bob graduated from Tech back in the mid 40s.
O.K., off my soap box and back to that teaching job which was exhausting. There were 4 flights of stairs I had to climb 4 times a day. I ended up losing my baby prematurely during Christmas break (he only lived 44 hours). With today’s neo-natal care, he would probably have survived. That pretty much ended my teaching career in public school. I loved teaching, but it was too stressful, so I vowed never to go back.
Just recently, after talking to a Herron art student at the First Friday Art Show, I realized I should have gone back to graduate school and become a college art teacher like my sister did — but I had my daughter the next year and later my husband decided to go back to college. We could never have afforded both of us in school at once.
I did do a little substitute teaching after this, but that was even more challenging. I had schools I refused to sub at. They would call at 6:30 a.m. and ask if you were subbing that day and I would say what school and if they were on my “Black List” I refused. For example at one grade school I was assigned to a gym class, but both gymnasiums were being used for other things that day (school pictures, etc.). I asked the principal where I was supposed to take the class and he said just find an empty classroom (it was snowing outside). I found an empty room and the students followed me like I was a mother hen. We sat down just as the teacher, who’s classroom we had invaded, came in and ran us out. We sat in the hallway the rest of the period.
I also started teaching some Adult Education Classes over the years. I taught Calligraphy at Walker Career Center, Manual and Howe High Schools and for Free University. Remember Free University? It wasn’t free, but offered non-credit classes in whatever you wanted to learn in a short time — everything from Belly Dancing to Calligraphy (my specialty). The classes were set up in church classrooms or any space available throughout the city. I loved teaching Calligraphy and created a lesson plan I could do in my sleep. I always had great students, mostly women, but if I had a man in class he would be the best — men are very competitive.
Next month my job at Lee Wards Craft Store.
paula.weeklyview@yahoo.com
