What Artists Can Learn from Teachers (and Vice Versa)

5 Lessons I have learned through my time as an artist and a teacher

In a previous article, we took a look at the commonalities between artists and teachers. We came to the conclusion the purpose of both is to “share the good, true, and beautiful with the world, lead others out of darkness, and invite all to contemplate how blessed they are, discover the wonders of creation, and know how great is our God.”

Now let us isolate each vocation and discover some special unique strengths that the other vocation could benefit from. By doing so, we will hopefully come away with a sense of opportunity and a path for growth.

I just finished my second year of teaching at a grade school and have been an artist for a little longer. Now that I maintain a life of both, these unique experiences have brought value to one another.

Sacred Heart Christian Creators is dedicated to uniting, inspiring, and serving all creators of culture. We also hope to foster a cross-pollination and collaboration between disciplines of artists, teachers, and business and ministry workers.

What Can Artists Learn From Teachers

1. Service

To be blunt, some artists are totally self-absorbed, only create for money or recognition, and have a foundation of pride, and drive thereof, that takes the unique authenticity out of their work. Certainly, the same could be said of teachers.

The danger, however, of becoming like this is far worse for artists.

A teacher is in a classroom. They stand face to face with their audience, that is their students. They are provided with immediate feedback to their actions. They share in joys and frustrations. Even when they return home, they continue to think about their students.

In today’s world, an independent artist can become completely disconnected from their audience, if they ever were connected, and fall into those pitfalls previously mentioned. They could have little sense of service because they never came to know those who they ought to be serving with their art.

Compared to some of the art we see today, think of those grand cathedrals of yesteryear that lifted up the people with their grandeur, taught them by their stained-glass windows, and were built by people who knew they wouldn’t live long enough to see the result of their labor. They were created with love and they were created with the benefit of others in mind.

If an artist has the power to share goodness, truth, and beauty with others, and they do otherwise, they have rendered their service null.

2. Building Fellowship

Teachers naturally are around those like themselves, faced with common obstacles, and can unite for a shared purpose.

Artists may become isolated, and if they do meet others, it may be for mere conversation and not for undertaking a common pursuit.

The desert fathers of old told stories of monks who would seek to leave the brotherhood to live as a hermit. They would then face paramount temptation, when the devils could attack them without the support of their fellow brothers. The idiosyncrasies of the mind would tumble in on themselves and crush the disciple.

A monastery is a place of oneness (mono), where a community of those in a common pursuit, holiness, band together and live together, despite their differences. When I worked at a monastery, I saw a farmer, a West Point graduate, a business owner, and a nurse toil and pray together. Another religious once told me that a monastery is like putting a bunch of sharp rocks in a bucket and trying to smooth them out. Becoming a brother doesn’t eliminate differences, personal annoyances, or perspective, but it does bind them together to reach a goal.

This is something artists need.

To foster fellowship and collaboration among all creatives, we have built the Christian Creators community platform.

What Can Teachers Learn From Artists

1. The Best Artists Steal

An artist is sometimes or always inspired by the artists and their works before them. Thus, the saying goes. T.S. Eliot once wrote: “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.”

I can imagine a musician who takes choral music from the 1500s and applies its concepts to the styles of today. Some of the most unique artists of today are those who listen to a far range of music that came before them.

Teachers aren’t often aware of the styles and methods of yesteryear. There are a wealth of great books that have been written about the art of education. Even the biblical ideas of teaching aren’t known or understood.

Teachers should take inspiration from what has worked before them and add their own twists to methods. This point will lead into our next.

2. Developing Authenticity

With the current state of education today, classrooms can seem like industrial factories aimed at spitting out students able to recognize the memorize the correct answer on a test.

Memorization of key facts and rules, say in history or mathematics, remains valuable. This truth is also under attack at the moment (see the heavy emphasis on the inductive method of reaching knowledge).

However, limited is a student who can regurgitate what a Supreme Court ruling says without having their own moral comprehension of the matter.

What does any of this have to do with the subject of a teacher developing authenticity? Simply stated, this is what education becomes without an authentic teacher.

Contrary to “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” even with my limited experience in education, I have already witnessed the constant change and proposal of standards, curriculum, style, technology, and the “next best thing.”

If a teacher doesn’t remain authentically rooted in their own principles and unique characteristics, they will be swept away by all of this. Students don’t mind strict rules, but they despise shifting rules.

Something artists do well is remain unique. They use their experiences and inspirations to inform their creative desires. Great artists, as well as great teachers, play within a set of rules, but as great writers known the rules and sometimes break them, great teachers should do the same. That is, if disregarding certain conventions is good for their students.

When so many obstacles and opportunities are thrown at teachers in today’s society, they must first know what their unique strengths and weaknesses are and what their ideal or mission is. Why are they even a teacher? An artist creates art. What does a teacher try to teach?

3. Getting Creative

This last point may seem out of place. Most teachers would like to be more creative, yet they believe they lack the time. Perhaps they do. But now, more than ever before, integrating creative solutions, art, and multimedia is possible.

There are so many tools out there on the internet, especially with the AI Revolution, and so many resources. We will discuss these in future articles.

Toward a Shared Vocation

The Church needs creatives. Teachers, Artists, Business and Ministry Workers stand at an intersection of evangelization as builders of culture. Together, we are building a culture of goodness, truth, and beauty.

At Christian Creators, we are dedicated to uniting all of these creatives, fostering collaboration between them, and cultivate the excellence of their talents.

Imagine if more teachers could hone their creative talents through our courses or enlist the services of a designer to make something for their class? What about if a video maker could learn storytelling from a teacher?

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