My Brush With Life

Here is one of the most important items in my art classroom.
Yes, that's a trash can. Let me tell you something parents. You have to be able to let your kid make mistakes. You have to be able to allow your children the freedom of non-performance sometimes. When parents sign their kids up for art classes at The Drawing Room Studio, I try to explain to them that their child may not bring something home after every class. If a student does something they don't like, they can throw it away. If a student doesn't think it's important to bring home every warm-up and practice drawing, they can throw it away. This is very important. I believe that students shouldn't feel that they have to perform up to some ideal when they are learning, especially in the arts. Art, music, dance, and drama lessons don't always have a quantifiable result that can be tidily shown in a neat little project upon parent request. The arts should be a place where everyone feels free to explore and *gasp* make mistakes. Of course, we don't use that word in our class. We use the word "happy accident" instead. 
Happy accident is something that kids should get used to earlier rather than later, because, guess what, life never turns out like you plan. And in that way, art is like life. Drawings hardly ever turn out exactly like you had planned them in your head and the sooner you learn to use your mistakes, work from them instead of against them, be okay with throwing things away and not feel like you have to please everyone in your life, the better and healthier your life will be. A quote that we have hanging over the art room door states, "To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong."
That being said, we go through a lot of paper at the studio. How do I avoid the guilt of tree killing that goes with so many happy accidents? Well, I recycle.
. I take all those mistakes and I shred them. Then I use them to mix in to the bedding of my lovely ladies. Is there anything these ladies can't make better?