I’ve decided, I will only take an art class from a teacher that has been highly recommended by someone I trust or a teacher I have interviewed myself and feel comfortable with their teaching style.

And Linda’s high school counselor story sounds like so many I’ve heard.. too many of them tell the kids you won’t amount to much so don’t even try.

This reminds me too of my High School Guidance Counselor. I was a good student in science, math and English and he advised me that I should look into a career as a secretary or nurse. I asked him why he didn’t recommend careers as a doctor. lawyer, or scientist and he just looked at me blankly. I decided after this to always do my own research and never rely upon so-called experts with no imagination and vision for the limitless possibilities we all have to choose from.

Thanks for sharing this. I had a similar experience with a Creative Writing class I took at my local community college a while ago. The woman who taught it was the worst English teacher I ever had. She made everyone read their assignments out loud and made fun of their writing. She told us it was her job to “weed” out the bad writers and discourage them from writing. I watched as the class dropped out one by one. No one was good enough for her. I wasn’t discouraged myself, because I knew she was full of it, but it was so painful to watch her stomp on people’s dreams of becoming a writer. Bad teachers are toxic and if you get one you need to tune them out!