Little fish, big pond

There’s a headline you won’t see in our local Index Tribune partially because I have no idea who writes for, covers education, or is in charge of our local rag but mostly because the art in question is really uh, garbage.

That’s hard for me to write especially because I see where the art market is, I’ve laughed my way through the new Mr. Brainwash exhibit at the ZK Gallery in SF, followed the tale of the 6.2 million dollar duct taped banana, taught the story of Basquait’s “Five Thousand Dollars” painting and what it means in an art world where people buy art based not on what they like but on the perceived value and future investment potential of the work.

Bottom line, 1980 is not 2025, and I am not Basquiat or Warhol or Rauschenberg or Haring or even Banksy (who I’ve impersonated many times because he’s still anonymous) so 25 years of art goes into the dumpster.

But that’s OK, I needed to purge 30 yards (not a misprint, I actually filled a 20-foot dumpster) of collected educational and art detritus because it was time to clean house and I was given two days to pack up.

Gone is Puffman, the lifesize human cutout covered in discarded JUUL Puffbars, collected every Friday around Nathanson Creek in the 2010’s when my Science classes would pick up two full bags of garbage every week behind SVHS (no longer a problem-thanks Puffman!).

“Kids on the Vine” from 2004, all the giant canvases of “Better out than in, Sonoma” patterned after Banksy’s “Better out then in” New York experience. The 3’ by 6’ Values paintings: Justice Integrity, Honesty. The 1% artwork from 2007 (wealth distribution is not new), the protest signs, the giant wooden signs (SONOMAWOOD was only the first, we also made HOLLYWOOD, BOLLYWOOD, POOL, PEACE, SWEEP, VOTE, JOY, EMPATHY, SONOMA and READ).

Plus, Shorty’s and Anthony’s and Kayla’s and Dan’s and 25 years of student works which they didn’t take home but which I didn’t want to toss out, because well, I can just roll it up and stash it in the corner.

But now it’s all gone, destined for a giant hole in the ground outside of Petaluma, and it’s time to move forward. Because the future is all that matters, going out with a bang in my final few years of engaging minds, moving to a facility with a real art room and kiln plus a gym and farm and library and oh my.

And cleaning house is therapeutic. Remembering the good, like the projects above, and the bad like the morning of 9/11, the killing of Luis Miranda, meth month, Kyle and Chris and Amanda and Abraham and all the other students who have passed.

Plus, all the leadership and colleague changes, 7 superintendents, 8 principals, 11 teachers and me riding my little Schwinn cruiser to work each day, hopeful and optimistic that what I’m bringing might have some effect on the direction of students.

Not to mention impacts to education like the Internet, smartphones, project-based learning, flipped classrooms, SEL, STEAM, Covid, I’d like to say education has evolved in 25 years but, as you know, I’m worried about where we’ve landed with today’s smartphone addicted students.

“Yesterday’s news is tomorrows fish and chip paper.” The great philosopher, Elvis Costello said that and it’s a good mantra because if we’re going to change the future, we have to get to work now.

I want to increase tennis interest in Sonoma so I’m holding free clinics (Monday, Wednesdays 9:30-11, June 23, 25, July 14, 16, 21, 23, August 4, 6 at the High School courts). I want to have the largest, happiest and best dressed golf team ever so we are having a car wash this Saturday June 21^st, 10-1 at the Chevy Dealership. And I want to really kill it next year so my co-teacher Sam and I are developing 10 thematic cross-curricular units for this year (First one, “Self, how you can be the best you”).        

Then there’s surviving the orange menace who wants you swirling around in his dysfunctional administration. That one’s a no-brainer people, put down the phone, go for a walk, talk to a friend and realize that there’s more good than bad in the world even though the bad gets most of the press.

And clean your room, you’ll feel better.