How to improve upon the average public school kid: Make the art class just as important as every other subject— and treat it as such. The general idea of art is that you're born with it. It's a one time deal. If the kid doesn't take, just allow them to keep producing crap on their own and give them an A for making marks on paper. It wasn't until I hit college did I truly learn to do anything. I was a Fine Art AP class high school student-thing. My figure drawings were mutant people. No one spoke about form or colour... it was just, here's a brush, water colour set— go.
School:
I have taken countless math courses. Every year, in fact, until junior year of high school. My brain and I just wouldn't have it. No absorption there, with the exception of a bit of geometry (Ooh, shapes) and a bit of 3rd grade (flash cards, ooh printed material, 80lb paper with a glossy finish).
I can eat, walk in a straight line, comb my hair and a number of human activities.
This is what my public school has done to me. They made me think I would be a useless hooligan, wandering the suburban streets if I had not taken my future as an accountant seriously. But hell, I wasn't a great student anyway. I actually became a dedicated cheater. Whether the smart kid next to me knew about it, I would get those answers on my sheet.
And this is where art forced my eyes to my own paper.
You can't copy art. Well, you can, but you say that you've been inspired by Picasso or Vermeer, not the person sitting at your table. You also copy the masters to learn how to make art.
You can't copy personal experience, brushstroke or the emotion put into it. My eyes kept to my canvas, and I owe it to art to where I am today. Lucky, compared to the majority of my high school graduating class, who have been pregnant, are pregnant or are going to be pregnant soon. Who feel that they have to exploit their bodies to survive or feed their over-indulgent financial habits. And to those who considered themselves recreational drug users in school, now, haven't lifted a finger to rehabilitate or better their lives. Also, I am fortunate to realize their education system hindered my skills that could have been nurtured, crushed my self-esteem and showed that sport deserved more attention and financial aid. I'm sure that television screen in the football stadium changed lives, and I'm certain those athletes will all become professionals with an expiration date around 34 years old.
