My Teacher Box

While we were reading Sentipensante, I liked Pulido’s idea for creating boxes which would reflect the students’ identity, so I decided to make a box that would represent me as a teacher. Because I wish to be a teacher who listens to what the students have to say, I started the project by asking students in the School of Art to write on a small card what is in their opinion the most important quality a teacher should have. The exterior of the box was made based on their answers. Inspired by Corita’s approach to art projects, I chose to pair the most prevalent responses with symbols, some of them ancient, other more recent. Therefore, from left to right, you can see a runic symbol for passion, an African icon for humility, a Celtic symbol for intellect, the equivalent of understanding in Braille, a comedy mask for humor, the Alim symbol for integrity, a Zibu symbol for compassion, and the universal sign for fairness / justice (probably of Egyptian origin). On top of the box stays the Chinese symbol for patience, which most of the students indicated as the key quality. Because my daughter Sara wants to be an Art teacher (big surprise!) and because she is such an inspiration and such an important part of me, the colors on one corner of the box are the imprints of her hand. The interior of the box is both a memory and a warning. The sides suggest painted fragments from Pink Floyd’s "Another Brick in the Wall". As any young person, in the past, I often identified with this song; the bottom of the box illustrates my desire of not becoming “just another brick in the wall”.