I Want to be a Jedi When I Grow Up

Recently my daughter celebrated her 7th birthday. I told her that when I was seven I had watched my first Star Wars movie and of course the "you're a dork" look came over her face. It is common knowledge that I am a huge Star Wars nerd and I could probably take just about anyone in a trivia contest. I thought of this because I can remember that once I saw Star Wars, an entire world of imagination was opened up to me. I began to have big thoughts and began to think about my own abilities and possibilities.

Last week I was at a workshop and a story was shared about a young girl who had aspirations of becoming an anime artist. She shared this with myself and other educators during a meeting concerning her educational plan. When announcing that she wanted to be an artist like the one she had been reading about in a book sitting next to her, the members of the group dropped their shoulders and began to tell her that maybe their was a good art program at John A. Logan where she could get her start or maybe she could make a good living in graphic design. I quickly jumped on my laptop and Googled the artist in the book. He had dropped out of high school his junior year and evidently is one of the premiere anime artists in the field.

There is no doubt this young lady has considerable talent. One of her chalk drawings is hanging in my office. I began to wonder if we are failing her. We very often try to steer students in a path that we feel is acceptable. I was struck by this and felt pretty bad that this young lady had to be told that what she had a talent for was unrealistic and that maybe she could do something else.

Now when I was seven I was convinced I wanted to be a Jedi when I grew up. I know this is not possible but I can say that big dreams were never discouraged. Is the American dream being compromised in my story? Are we telling kids that this dream doesn't exist by pushing them into "acceptable" post high school plans? I am realistic enough to know that not everyone can do everything and I will never undervalue being educated, but we should never ignore true talent. We never have in sports but I guess art is different.