The art room was always an oasis in the middle of a desert for me in school. Constantly being surrounded by the expectations and rigid rules and regulations of classes like Geometry and Chemistry was overwhelming, something that I think many students can relate to in a world where following the rules and doing what you are “supposed to” is often projected as the only option to get anywhere in life. But the art room contained multitudes, different supplies, wacky characters, and an overwhelming sense of go with the flow, creative energy. Oftentimes art is one of the only subjects that a public school student can count on to offer fresh new ideas as well as a chance to express themselves. The subjective nature of art means that oftentimes the same weight isn’t put on to grade percentages and curves, which can also relieve some of the very normal pressure people feel in the classroom environment. 
My experience working with youth has more often than not been in non-traditional settings. When I was in middle and high school I was first a mentee and then mentor at a community organization, the Cornstalk Institute, in my hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. There we fostered educational relationships through activities like rock climbing, pottery and farming. This helped to ignite a passion and a belief within me that active participation can make all the difference in the teaching of any subject, but is most important when teaching things like art. I then spent summers in San Antonio, Texas, volunteering with Kinetic Kids, an organization that helped children with disabilities learn to do things like ride bikes, or shoot a basketball. This further helped to solidify my opinion that one of the best ways to learn something is to do something, and helping others to determine how they can actively do things is very important to me. Art and art education offer a prime opportunity to allow students to exercise the parts of their bodies and intellect that they don’t necessarily have the opportunity to flex in their more traditional classes. 
These are all reasons why I’ve wanted to be an art teacher since a very young age. Helping students to express their feelings and thoughts through a wide variety of mediums and techniques is something that I’ve always felt I would be good at, and felt comfortable doing. Selfishly, the experience of working with art everyday, and with such a vast variety of different students, from different backgrounds, with different skills and life experiences will serve to elevate my own art practice, and help make human connections that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Dr. Eve Ewing writes ”Young people, queer people, immigrants, and minorities have long used art as a means of dismantling the institutions that would silence us first and kill us later,…” and this perfectly illustrates the reasons that I want to become an educator, specifically in the field of art. Art has always served as a tool of those without a voice to find theirs and then magnify it. 
As a white person, part of my educational philosophy must be the repayment of educational debts owed to the marginalized people of America. While I, and my fellow white colleagues, may not be necessarily responsible for these debts, it is easy to be complicit in continuing them. As such, I am a huge proponent of supporting inclusive education, or as David J. Connor writes asking “How can I conceive of my classroom so that all students fit?” (Connor 231). The art classroom offers a pliability of pedagogy and material that can better serve to help students of all different backgrounds “fit”. 
 I’m also aware of the ways in which Art education is slipping through the cracks, oftentimes art budgets are slashed and deemed as less important, a waste of resources. I wholeheartedly disagree with that sentiment, because, as I described at the beginning of this writing, Art, due to its contrasting nature with the other subjects taught in school, serves as an immensely important buffer from the more classic educational classes. Art can also be therapeutic, something that I truly believe, and a tool to unlock parts of oneself that perhaps aren’t immediately recognizable through more cosmopolitan avenues of self reflection. Art to me serves as one of the last ways in which school students, particularly public school (which I have attended from elementary school to college) can really express themselves, and I am anxiously awaiting being able to help them through that journey.