Chronicles of Chaos

October 8, 2007 | Print

Drawing Dragons

I help out in Amelia’s art class a few times a month. Today is my second time, and I’m sort of getting better. I don’t have to do any art, which is good.

Another parent also helps today and seems more experienced–she tells the kids to be quiet which is more effective than my mental telepathy “please sit down and listen” approach.

I’m a come sit on my lap with Amelia, let’s all listen so we can figure out what we’re doing next kind of assistant.

Which is likely why I’m most at home with the five and unders. I’m hoping as Amelia gets older I’ll keep expanding my repertoire, by the time she’s 20 I’ll be able to handle 15 year old Oliver.

The art project of the day is drawing dragons. The teacher shows us pictures of dragons in books. The boys are riveted, the girls noticeably quiet. Several of the boys blurt out facts and descriptions of the dragon TV shows they’ve seen. Everyone crowds the art teacher as she demonstrates how to draw a dragon.

It looks hard. I’m relieved that I’m not a kid who has to draw a dragon right now.

The kids pick a seat at the art tables and start drawing with their pencils. Half the class confidently sketches and revels in their abilities, “Look, look at this! Look at what I did!” The others draw, erase, draw again, flip the paper to the clean side and repeat. Then several of them ask for help.

One or two try to coax me into drawing for them (as if this would be an improvement), “just hold the pencil here, and I’ll hold it here.” Another child explains her paralysis, “There’s an art show at the end of school and I don’t want mine to be bad.” I try to heal her adult-like worries with eye to eye contact and no good/bad definitions, “You are an artist, your dragon will be an original piece of art.”

I give a few girls direction by leading them towards animals they like to draw–several of the dragons resemble bears breathing fire.

Two boys sit together quietly drawing in such detail I wonder if they’ll have enough time. When they show me how they draw pencil circles on their palms, I lead them back to the paper.

Ten minutes later, class is over and every child has finished their drawing.

It feels like a small miracle.

•