My son told me a story the other night that makes me smile with fondness and pride.<\/p>\n
First, you have to realize his background.\u00c2\u00a0 He went to high school at an American school in Germany.\u00c2\u00a0 The ONE class that really took advantage of their being in Europe was AP Art History.\u00c2\u00a0 The class had a fabulous teacher, Kathleen Hellmann, who really taught the material well, and she took the class on a trip to Florence so they could really see some of the work they were discussing.<\/p>\n
This teacher spent a good solid four hours discussing the Mona Lisa.\u00c2\u00a0 It was huge in the world of art and affected art tremendously.\u00c2\u00a0 She told the students that they would certainly be asked, “So why is the Mona Lisa important?” and she made sure they would be able to answer that question, at length.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to this past month.\u00c2\u00a0 Josh is in college, at a school that will remain nameless for this post.\u00c2\u00a0 They do not give AP credit, and did not let him test out of Art History, since it is supposedly a class in his major (Film).\u00c2\u00a0 This particular month is Josh’s turn to take Art History.\u00c2\u00a0 It only lasts four weeks, but for quite a few hours each day.<\/p>\n
Josh was already frustrated with the class.\u00c2\u00a0 The teacher is focusing on things like which saints are pictured in which paintings, rather than the actual history of art.<\/p>\n
He was already frustrated that they didn’t cover some of his favorite artists.\u00c2\u00a0 He told me, “Mom, they didn’t even cover Rafael!\u00c2\u00a0 Rafael was a Ninja Turtle!<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0 He was the coolest <\/em>Ninja Turtle!”\u00c2\u00a0 (Sure enough, it brought me right back to when Josh was 3 years old and his favorite character to pretend to be was Rafael….\u00c2\u00a0 But I digress.)<\/p>\n Then they came to the Mona Lisa.\u00c2\u00a0 The teacher talked about issues like who might have been the model, and was ready to move on.\u00c2\u00a0 A student raised his hand and asked, “I don’t get it.\u00c2\u00a0 Why is the Mona Lisa so famous?\u00c2\u00a0 What’s the big deal about it?”<\/p>\n The teacher didn’t really answer the question.\u00c2\u00a0 She even said something along the lines of “maybe it’s a mystery.”\u00c2\u00a0 Josh couldn’t contain himself any longer.<\/p>\n He raised his hand.\u00c2\u00a0 When the teacher called on him, he stood<\/em> up<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 Then he addressed the class, beginning with the words, “Here’s why the Mona Lisa is important:”<\/p>\n He talked for fifteen minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 Knowing my son, I bet he was clear, detailed, dramatic, and passionate.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n When he sat down, he was shaking.\u00c2\u00a0 The classroom burst into applause.\u00c2\u00a0 Lengthy applause.<\/p>\n A sad note:\u00c2\u00a0 He heard someone ask behind him, “Should we be writing this down?”<\/p>\n Now, as a Mom, part of me isn’t quite sure I should approve of this incident.\u00c2\u00a0 He can’t really have won the heart of his teacher!\u00c2\u00a0 But knowing what a wonderful teacher Ms. Hellmann was, knowing how well she taught Josh Art History, and knowing that Josh had been containing his frustration like a model student for the rest of the time — I’m giving in to my stronger impulse, which is to be proud of him!\u00c2\u00a0 Way to go, Josh!<\/p>\n He has two weeks of class left to go.\u00c2\u00a0 I hope he can stick it out!\u00c2\u00a0 Meanwhile, it’s making him really appreciate Ms. Hellmann for the awesome teacher she was!<\/p>\n And I’m really appreciating what an awesome son I have!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My son told me a story the other night that makes me smile with fondness and pride. First, you have to realize his background.\u00c2\u00a0 He went to high school at an American school in Germany.\u00c2\u00a0 The ONE class that really took advantage of their being in Europe was AP Art History.\u00c2\u00a0 The class had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}