Polls have been slow lately! I’ve taken a brief sabbatical visiting other morbid places of the Internet, and people have scary imaginations! I’m very happy to be a slightly morbid fruit and not a totally morbid fruit! That said, I caught up to the recent episodes of Hoshiai no Sora, so here’s a poll! You are an art teacher in your local high school, and your job is to teach all sort of art classes. You’re pretty good at art and went to a nice university for the arts. Your original dream was to be a concept artist for a video game / film company, but the job market is tight so you ended up as a high school teacher. However, you are satisfied with this outcome because you have good job stability as an art teacher and you are able to do free-lance commission work on the side. You have one student who is really talented at art and they really love everything related to pursuing art. They are quite a visionary and you have encouraged the student to submit their artwork to local and national art competitions. However, one day during sophomore year the student’s mom pays you a visit after school. She tells you that art is a waste of time and she does not approve of her son spending time on art. Instead, she needs her son to focus on university entrance exams so he can get into a top university to become a doctor/lawyer/engineer. Because of this, she demands that you prevent her son from visiting your classroom after school. She would like you to ban him from your classroom and make him drop his art elective (which apparently he signed up for without her permission). The mother says this in a very carefully worded fashion, saying it is only a “suggestion”, but it is implied she may go higher up the food chain if you don’t cooperate. You have spoken to the son about his future aspirations before, and you know that he secretly wants to go to art school — to pursue animation and 3D modeling. He has the skills to get into the top animation schools in the country, and he’s been working hard on his submission for a youth competition that would provide a huge scholarship to attend art school if he wins. Right now is a critical time for that art competition. Evidently, he has not informed his parents of his thoughts... What do you do? 1. Would you listen to the mom’s request? Why or why not? What would you do? 2. If your child wanted to go to art school, would you allow them? Under what circumstances would you allow it, if any? 3. Did your parents pressure you to get a high-paying job (doctor/lawyer/finance/etc)? Did you try going in that direction? What happened? 4. Would you rather a high-stress high-paying job that leaves you with no free time? Or a mediocre job that leaves time for you to pursue your hobbies? 5. Would you ever be willing to sacrifice stress/sleep/earning potential to pursue a dream? 6. How much of an income could you be satisfied with your life?
What do you do? 1. Would you listen to the mom’s request? Why or why not? What would you do? No. Everyone has a right to take whichever path they choose. Good or bad. If I was the boy I would not stop trying to reach my dreams. 2. If your child wanted to go to art school, would you allow them? Under what circumstances would you allow it, if any? Yes, I would allow them to chase their dreams. Whatever it might be. 3. Did your parents pressure you to get a high-paying job (doctor/lawyer/finance/etc)? Did you try going in that direction? What happened? No, they wanted me happy. I went where life took me. 4. Would you rather a high-stress high-paying job that leaves you with no free time? Or a mediocre job that leaves time for you to pursue your hobbies? No, I need my free time. I need to read. 5. Would you ever be willing to sacrifice stress/sleep/earning potential to pursue a dream? Yes, life is to short and regret all to easy. Follow your dreams and you’ll never go wrong. 6. How much of an income could you be satisfied with your life? $60,000.00 a year is about right. More would be great, but minimum would be maybe $50,000.00.
Just tell her that her son has great talent in this field and in future could get a high paid job. Also tell her that you would talk to her son about importance of exams so he would pay more attention to them. If she still want her son to quit - redirect her to higher authorities(teacher never has any authority to drop people from his class). In this case also talk to student about this and then submit a report to higher authorities about student opinion on this case and student success on art field. Thats all.
1. Nope. Because who friggin knows the future? Maybe her son would be an eminence in gaming design and so. I'd help him to apply for art schools and so. If he not, we'll at least he studied something he loved. 2. Of course! Except if he wants to be one of those abstract artist who put a banana with insulating tape. Or one of those who just put aa lot of garbage (literally garbage) on a room and call it "art". If they can't paint like Da Vinci or sculpt like Michaelangelo, then no. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 3. They suggested, I rejected. Lol. 4. I rather having a job. Can't be picky in this economy. 5. I breathe stress ┬┴┬┴┤ω･)├┬┴┬┴ 6. One that pays the bill, put food in the fridge, food for my little beasts, let me buy clothes and pay transport. Better if it let me buy those stupid and unnecessary things I apparently love. (´๑•_•๑)
1. Would you listen to the mom’s request? Why or why not? What would you do? Most likely no, I would not listen to that mom. Teaching is a matter of professional integrity, and if non-related people start to get a say to how I do my job or who to teach, then I might as well stop. I would ask her to check the suicide statistics of engineers... oh, and ask if she ever wants any grandchildren. If she gets me fired for doing my job, then good riddance. I'll just move my homeless cardboard house to her lawn and paint sarcastic pictures of her there where she can clearly see me. 2. If your child wanted to go to art school, would you allow them? Under what circumstances would you allow it, if any? Yes, I'd allow art school... but they'd probably have to, whatever school they choose, be responsible for their study loans and such by themselves. You know, after all, Finland has basically free education and even student support and student loans... no real reason to take responsibility for children's own desires. 3. Did your parents pressure you to get a high-paying job (doctor/lawyer/finance/etc)? Did you try going in that direction? What happened? I didn't get pressured into anything, really, I tried restaurant chef school before I went for MSc on Computer Science, and it was worth it even though it didn't become my day job. Shift work wasn't my thing. Still, software engineering is a frustrating and over-rated profession meant for extreme masochists, so to each their own. 4. Would you rather a high-stress high-paying job that leaves you with no free time? Or a mediocre job that leaves time for you to pursue your hobbies? I'd rather go for the mediocre job with free time; the first one mostly works *against* any possibility of being happy and is just a concept to raise suckers who are taken advantage of by big corporations for all they're worth... until they're finally discarded and replaced with new suckers. 5. Would you ever be willing to sacrifice stress/sleep/earning potential to pursue a dream? If I had a dream I really wanted to achieve, then maybe. But by now, basically all dreams are dead. 6. How much of an income could you be satisfied with your life? Hmm, probably 2800 euros per month would be more than enough (before taxes); no real need to think about what I want to buy and I can still get some games and stuff if I want to. Of course, the amount depends on local food and living costs. Addendum: Oh, and when I read "helicopter" in the title, I expected at least attack helicopters like Apaches or Black Sharks.
1. Would you listen to the mom’s request? Why or why not? What would you do? No. Just no. I would collaborate with the anatomy teacher and ask for handouts of the human body, and ask the student to enroll there next semester as well, while coming afterschool to the art room and working on art and a few anatomy worksheets. If mom enquires, student is with anatomy teacher doing science after school. Look worksheets even. After all, taking the anatomy class is good for an artist to understand how to draw the human body better. Can collaborate with many other subject teachers since work can be made art applicable 2. If your child wanted to go to art school, would you allow them? Under what circumstances would you allow it, if any? Money is the main issue... art schools are fucking expensive- at least the ones of a quality you can't learn how to do it yourself at home. 3. Did your parents pressure you to get a high-paying job (doctor/lawyer/finance/etc)? Did you try going in that direction? What happened? Buzz off 4. Would you rather a high-stress high-paying job that leaves you with no free time? Or a mediocre job that leaves time for you to pursue your hobbies? 5. Would you ever be willing to sacrifice stress/sleep/earning potential to pursue a dream? Yea 6. How much of an income could you be satisfied with your life? Have enough to eat and sleep safely and some to play would make me content
1. Would you listen to the mom’s request? Why or why not? What would you do? No! It's the child's decision on what path they wanna take in life and it's a teacher's job to help guide them there. I'd politely tell the mom to piss off and talk to my supervisor and the kid himself about what happened. Maybe a counselor too. 2. If your child wanted to go to art school, would you allow them? Under what circumstances would you allow it, if any? Yes, if I believed they had enough passion and determination to continually imorove. Art is a competitive field, and also hard AF to do so if you don't have the right mindset and connections, you're not going to make enough to live off of. Ofc everything needs a plan but if my child presents me with a plausible and solid plan for the next 10-20 years then yeah. If you want to become a professional artist, just "liking to draw" is not enough. They have to take it seriously, be able to draw when and what they won't draw, be able to take and grow from constructive criticism and be able to deliver to a client's needs even if they aren't happy with it. 3. Did your parents pressure you to get a high-paying job (doctor/lawyer/finance/etc)? Did you try going in that direction? What happened? No and no. Parents didn't care and I didn't care so I'm kinda f*cked right now lol 4. Would you rather a high-stress high-paying job that leaves you with no free time? Or a mediocre job that leaves time for you to pursue your hobbies? Mediocre! For what is life without happiness? 5. Would you ever be willing to sacrifice stress/sleep/earning potential to pursue a dream? Maybe. I'd need to find a dream first lol 6. How much of an income could you be satisfied with your life? I just need enough to live off of/extra savings to spend on hobbies.
Well, I would probably be polite to the parent but noncommital. But with the kid I'd lay it all out on the line. 1. You are talented in art. 2. Your parent doesn't want you in art, wants me to ban you from the room. 3. As a teacher, I'm not going to ban anyone, but your parent may make a fuss to the schoolboard. What you do, kid? How much do you want art as a future? The ball is in your court. I wouldn't fight for the kid for noble sounding reasons like "advancing the arts". There's all kinds of jackoffs that are willing to do that. I'm not going be political cannon fodder if the kid isn't going to fight for themselves. That would just be senseless. Pursuing a goal like that, or a lifelong career, means putting your heart, time, and effort into it. If the kid is going to give into parental pressure, then me adding oil to the fire is just going to end badly for me. Screw that. But if the kid is determined to make art their future, then we can get sneaky to make sure they have a place to practice until they get in the school they want. And obviously they would need an alternate funding source, if their parents are so against it, so entering into the contests is a must to gain recognition and scholarships.
1) No, although his future is important a parent that forces their child on a path that the child themself does not want is scum. I would notify the school and let them deal with things. 2) I would, but I would also tell them that they need a backup plan if it doesn't work out. 3) My parents didn't care, but then again my dad dropped out to join the military and he thought that saying anything would just be him being a hypocrite. 4) Mediocre. If you don't have time to enjoy yourself what's the point in life. I had a high stress job that had me, even on my days off, stressed and unable to do anything.The pay was not worth it. 5) Yes 6) enough to live on
Maybe: Other. I think I'd try actually talking to the mother about the child's situation and so on, and about my whole understanding of them. It's not my job to control their parents, but it is my job to let them understand what I think is best for their kid. Also, calling art shit at that point would be a literal insult to my job. dude yo.
1) no way. The kid should make their own decisions, especially if they're as good as this one. Not to mention, I probably think that learning art is a good thing if I'm teaching this class. I would try to make the parent see sense about the possible career paths he could take, as well as his talent and drive for the subject. I would then go to the higher ups and tell them the situation and ask them to also try and convince her otherwise should she go to them, too. 2) as long as they thought it out and their reasoning seemed coherent. I would give support with whatever they ended up choosing, but I would definitely try to convince them to take a sensible career path. 3) my mum wanted me to become a physicist or something like that and make lots of money, and I was all up for it. I changed my mind and realised I wanted to be a maths teacher and, although they've tried to talk me out of it at first, everyone is supportive now. 4) I want a job that will make me enjoy daily life, and I don't care all that much for money. So an ideal job would be either something that has low stress and lots of free time, or something I enjoy doing (e.g. teaching). 5) Not sure, since I've never been in that position with a dream I've wanted to pursue so badly before 6) enough to live in a small apartment and not have to worry about being able to pay for basic expenses while also getting some kind of pension to not be homeless or still working at 70 years old
Depending on how much potential the kid got, I might have a talk with the mother to prove her that she is wrong (maybe show her what kind of future well paying jobs the kid can have) or take her side if the kid's potential isn't that much (ruining the kid's future and giving them false hope is bad), I need more details
1. I wouldn't listen to it. If she really doesn't want her son to pursue art then she should talk to him about it and not sabotage him behind his back like this. 2. I would allow them as long as they have passion for it. I wouldn't limit my children's future to what i want. But if he wanted to go to art school just because his friend went there, then i would try to persuade him not to. 3. Not really 4. A mediocre job that leaves time for me to do my hobbies 5. I don't think i would. I am not that ambitious... I am satisfied with an ordinary life 6. Hmm 5 million IDR per month i guess?
1. Would you listen to the mom’s request? Why or why not? What would you do? Nope, If the parent tried to dictate their child's life in such a fashion, I would talk in noncommittal terms and act absent minded. From what I understand, teachers have no requirement to follow the wills of the parent unless there is a clear basis for their concerns. As long as the student is getting passing grades, and excelling in their preferred classes, the student has more say in their future then their parents. Frankly, after the age of 16 young adults have more freedom of choice then they know. 2. If your child wanted to go to art school, would you allow them? Under what circumstances would you allow it, if any? If they could prove they had the talent and shown they would take it seriously, I would have no problems helping them achieve they goals. 3. Did your parents pressure you to get a high-paying job (doctor/lawyer/finance/etc)? Did you try going in that direction? What happened? Despite having a fairly rich extended family full of doctors, nurses, ect, my parents were divorced and working poor. They were too busy trying to make ends meet to really do more then encourage us to just stay in school. As long as we didnt fail the grade they didnt involve themselves much in out school life. 4. Would you rather a high-stress high-paying job that leaves you with no free time? Or a mediocre job that leaves time for you to pursue your hobbies? I spend long hours(12 to 14+ a day) bounce around fields during the summer and fall earning just enough to survive till the next season. I will also do odd jobs to make up for any deficiencies that might pop up. Think it's more of a combination of both options. High stress but just for a short amount of time. Then I'm off for the rest of the year. 5. Would you ever be willing to sacrifice stress/sleep/earning potential to pursue a dream? those have long been crushed xD I just do enough to exist until I can finally move on to whatever comes next. 6. How much of an income could you be satisfied with your life? Not a greedy person.... most of the time. Enough to get by, savings to take care of the unexpected issues and have a small hobby fund.