WHY I GAVE UP PLAYING THE GUITAR

By

Ray Villareal

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.—Albert Einstein

One of the first assignments I used to give my fourth graders was to write about themselves, then draw self-portraits to go with their autobiographies. Afterwards, I would display their work on my GETTING TO KNOW YOU bulletin board.  

But unless the students had an innate artistic ability, their drawings usually weren’t very good. The faces were almost always round, with the eyes placed near the hairline. The noses were either shaped like triangles, or they looked like broccoli sprigs. And the mouths resembled watermelon slices. In fact, their drawings weren’t much different from the ones my second graders used to draw when I gave them the same activity.

Part of the reason for the poor artwork was that our school didn’t have a fine arts program. So, without an art teacher teaching proper drawing techniques, my students’ portraits were limited to what they’d learned to do on their own.

As the year progressed, I taught my fourth graders how to draw faces, using a few simple tricks I picked up at a teacher prep art course I took in college. My students were amazed by how easily they could draw realistic-looking faces. It was as if I had revealed a magician’s secret to them, and they practiced drawing faces every chance they got.

Children often lose interest in writing because they don’t have the tools to express themselves the way they’d like. Their compositions look and sound the same, and they know it.

But what if they had teachers who could show them how to transform their bland compositions into thrilling stories and engaging essays by using their own writings as examples?

Years ago, I decided to teach myself to play the guitar. I bought a nylon-string acoustic guitar and a book of chords. And within a short time, I learned to play a fair number of songs, including some written by Neil Diamond, who seemed to have made a career of composing songs that required only three chords.

I still own the guitar, but I seldom pick it up these days, mainly because each time I do, I end up playing the same songs, with the same chords, in the same way.

However, if I had an instructor who could take me beyond what I already know and show me new techniques, I’d certainly pull my guitar out of the closet and play it more often.   

Are children any different when it comes to motivating them to write?