Art has been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember, and although sometimes many New Trier art students can be really intimidating, the program offered here is a really great thing. While I'm looking to apply to AP Art next week (aah!), I know that even if I don't get in, there's still so much I can learn from any of the other art classes offered at New Trier that I could take instead.
New Trier has a reputation of breeding the best of the best; our student excel at everything they do, more than any other school's excelling students. Always. Why would a student choose to try something new when they know that there's already a pre-existing 50 students who will be better than them at it? Competition is, without a doubt, the greatest limitation on creativity at New Trier I can think of. While New Trier's "competitive spirit" (to put it kindly) can put a damper on creativity, and encouraging students to participate in new activities, it's the amazing programs we offer that allow students to become the "best of the best."
I personally don't think that I am the best of the best when it comes to my art, so it took me a while to decide whether or not to even actually apply for AP Art. I knew I'd hate myself if I didn't even try, but spending a whole year with gifted art children could be just as damaging...In the end, I've decided that my goal for this whole is to not let other students get in the way of my personal improvement. I will not compare myself to other artists, I will only compare my work to my own previous work. And I will be proud of myself.
Have you ever shied away from doing something because you were afraid of embarrassing yourself, especially in the competitive world of New Trier? Or are you a person who can try new things easily?
3 comments:
Ruchi! You are an amazing artist!
Anyways, back to your question - I definitely agree with what you have to say. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we all went to different schools - I like to think of all of the talented theater kids at school because I feel like all of them are good enough to get a lead, but at New Trier there are millions of them, so it doesn't happen easily. That's just one example, though. I feel like it's the same thing with the leveling system at New Trier because I'm "supposed" to be in mostly 3s but have changed my schedule since freshman year. It's intimidating walking into a class of greater difficulty when the results of your 8th grade entrance tests told you to shy away from them.
I feel like at New Trier, everyone (and I mean everyone) feels like they're inferior to others at some point - which makes sense, because there are always going to be people more successful than you in life - but the "competitive spirit" is what makes us hide that inferiority in another corner of our brain. It sounds like a bad thing, but I think that if you try hard enough to forget about it, you'll do great.
Watch out AP art, here comes the ruch.
Thanks, Sarah =]
RUCHI! I agree with Sarah. You are a good artist. Anyway.
As a fellow art dork I totally agree. For me, especially while I was growing up, I didn't always think of photography as art, because art, to me, means painting/drawing, etc, so I think its strange that I'm applying to AP Art, when to me its more just AP Photo...
I see what you mean about art being competitive. My non-art friends always laugh at me when I tell them I spend most of my free periods in the photo room, or that I get stressed about photo deadlines more than any other class. I'm not competing with anyone else-- my class is very chill and its an amazing enviornment because we all help each other (there's only 12 of us, all girls, in my class anyway, so it would be hard not to be close). I find myself competing with myself though-- I tell myself I need to do better, need to make every photograph the best it could possibly be.
So for us, we compete because New Trier has trained us to. We compete not with each other, but rather with ourselves, because NT has taught us that if you aren't trying your absolute hardest, you aren't doing as well as you should, and that you are a disappointment--to yourself.
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