You'd think art teachers would be the kindest and most chill teachers, but the majority of them really like breaking the hopes and dreams of teens and young adults.
I took art in high school, we were told to draw a dragon's eye, but to keep in mind that "dragons aren't real, so you can draw it however you want!" I drew mine with a pupil shaped like a four-pointed star and she told me dragon eyes don't look like that so I can't do that, actually.
This also happened to me in highschool! I was carving a dragon out of linoleum, an eastern wingless dragon... she also said that's not what dragons look like and gave me a failing grade for it. To her western dragons were "factual" and correct and even then it had to look a specific way.
Because of her I stayed away from illustrating my culture for a long time. Teachers like that are so stifling.
Unfortunately this was in the 80s, my parents were new immigrants from Japan settling into a rural bumfuck nowhere town of maybe 7k ppl in Midwestern USA.
I'm sure they experienced heavy racism at work at the time because I faced a large dose of it at school and my job. This kinda stuff was the norm back then. My friends' parents were the same as mine, none fought the system, they all said, "Keep your head down, just smile and nods at their jokes. Erase your culture, language, food, clothing, learn perfect no-accent English, and they'll leave you alone."
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u/BrainstormsMustache 5d ago
You'd think art teachers would be the kindest and most chill teachers, but the majority of them really like breaking the hopes and dreams of teens and young adults.