it is saturday at last

I tried to sleep in today but I couldn’t. I ended up waking up at the same time that I have been for the past five days.


Which is bloody six plus in the a.m.


I have been teaching in two schools the past week, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. The morning session's course is acrylic painting in Impressionism - yes again - as well as mixed media in Modernism. My kids now know who Claude Monet and Paul Cezanne are because they have been studying their paintings. Upstairs from the art room where I am, Enid and Clyda are teaching Pop art using Photoshop in the computer lab.


We have been shouting so much, I have lost my voice, especially since I have seconded Enid to teach upstairs and I have been alone doing my 2D art classes.


You see, discipline is very important in doing art, especially when learning it. If a student fails to listen to the one he is learning from, he stops learning, and he then has nothing to apply to his canvas. His brushstrokes will be different, his work on the computer screen will not get saved, and he will disrupt the rest of his group members hard at work. And so, one value we extol in the splashwurks classroom - discipline. Thus we have been fierce, screamed and have punished.


And in art, logistics is so key, that we pay our folks for those hours which are spent preparing materials and equipment - not every external education company does that. Work on computers needs to be saved into one central disk drive. Palettes, palette knives, brushes and all those whatchamacallits have to be washed. Paint has to be mixed and separated into bowls so we can distribute them.


In the morning, the kids are in Primary 4. Some of the kids have never painted before. A lot of them are not yet computer literate (neighbourhood school demographics). It gets harder to teach this way.


But in the end, the artworks are beautiful. Really.


Compared to the art now currently displayed outside their classrooms, these artworks are truly, works of art. After the screaming ruckus leaves the room with the class, I look at their work and am moved. Even in the silly mistakes. Some of them try so hard, some really listen to instructions, some obviously realise they made a mistake and try to cover up - in strange and wondrous ways for sure. The fruits of your labour makes it worth the voice. I'm glad we hit an imprint in their systems.


When it hits lunchtime, we munch and head to another school to teach an incredible bunch of Primary 2 kids. Incredible because, they have, by this age, all done painting before. Different type of kids from the other school. Who are even noisier, but surprisingly more obedient when it comes to doing their art. This time around, the logistics get worse, because the classrooms have no sinks, and there are no breaks between classes, so the paints and water have to be prepared beforehand and transported to class.


Thank God for SKP packaging, and that I have 2 of us teachers to a class here.


The P2 kids have been drawing, colouring and painting Henri Matisse. Now they are learning about landscape painting. We are training their visual observation skills - of form and of colour - as well as in their painting skills. Because this is a good school, their painting abilities are already developed.


Teaching P2 kids is all about brainwashing them.


"When you've finished painting the trees/mountains/sky, brushes where?"


"In the bowl!"


"I said, brushes where?!" Some will still be painting as you are about to teach them the next step, and they will miss out if they don't stop and listen.


"In the bowl!"


"Then why are there pupils who are still painting?!"


"Whey, faster! Wait teacher scold!" Brushes enter the bowls of water at lightning speed. Some will invariably still be painting.


"That boy in the back, stand up! You are not listening."


Even more silence. Now everyone is really attentive.


"Okay class, we are now going to paint the mountains. Where are the mountains on your drawing paper? They are below the sky, and around the trees," I point the area out on the board. The visualiser is not working. "So where are we going to paint now?"


"The mountains!"


"Do you paint the sky?'


"No!"


"Do you paint the trees?"


"No!"


"Do you paint the tree trunks?"


"NO!"


"So be very very careful. Now, Mr Marc and I are going to give out paints to you. When you get it, THEN you can take out your brushes and paint the mountains."


Artistic chaos reigns supreme thereafter.


Children make really cute comments sometimes.


"Why do you always have to tell us your name [when you come into class]?" says James. Everytime I step into class, I will write both teachers' names on the board, so that they know us. I am afraid they might forget. And so I answer him the same.


"Why was your group so noisy?" I asked the group I was punishing for not listening when we were teaching.


Alexander says with head lowered and eyes up towards me, "I was shy."


Huh? "What do you mean by that?"


"I was shy so I didn't dare to tell them to keep quiet." Head still lowered, eyes still up at me, mouth still in a geniune pout.


Even though lower primary kids are, in my opinion, harder to teach, still, they can be cute and funny. When we listen to Enid relate and animate her stories to us about her kids also, they are so funny really.


These two projects finish next week. In the meantime, I will continue to shout, get shouted at (by H when he is around, because he is stressed too), paint like crazy with the kids, teach from the beginning of morning session till the end of the afternoon session, and be so stressed that Enid and I end up buying stickers at a stall outside the school. Entertainment, social and personal time have been so sparse, stickers and Hello Kitty paraphernalia suddenly seem wildly interesting. We buy 3 sticker sheets for a dollar.


It is Saturday. I intend to go back to the school I teach in the morning today, to varnish the works I have selected for exhibition. Not all classes have finished, so I will varnish the Haystacks, Parliament Houses and Irises first. Perhaps I will take photos. I will also be discussed with by H: he will be telling me where we should be hanging our digital art sculptures.


The monster continues. I hope I regain my voice soon.