On Perfection

I've been struggling as a teacher with the mental perfectionism hang ups of my students.  A room full of "this is ugly" or "I don't like this" drives me crazy, particularly when it is voiced during the first hour of a project.  I think nothing kills a good lesson or project like a bunch of negativity projected onto that artwork.  Don't get me wrong, I am all for improvement of skill and technique as needed by the artist, but I feel like negativity is the opposite of a learning attitude.

Yesterday my class experience led me to contemplate some of my own moments of regret, self doubt, and perfectionism.  I thought about when I'd bared my heart to someone that did not return my feelings or when I exposed raw sides of myself publicly in a poetry reading.  I thought about clumsy moments when I walked into a stop sign.  All the instances when I spoke up without thinking properly about my words, I'm sure I've even done that here. 

In the end I thought what if these moments were actually the instances when I was most beautiful, most human? What if they were a mark of my bravery and not my imperfection.  

I am holding this thought this month as I push through with current projects.  I hope to blog a bit more and will use this writing space as a container for reflections on the ups and downs of this process.

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