Doggerel and Art

Sent from my iPad


'It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.'
Albert Einstein

I bought this painting from an exhibition by a young art student who came to work at our unit in school. A lovely girl, she brought such enthusiasm and fun to the pupils, and went on to train to become an Art teacher. I wrote this ditty to accompany her Secret Santa present one Christmas - just found it the other day when clearing out our bureau.

'Before she came our walls were dull
The pictures all askew
Cartoons and photos jumbled up
A change long overdue

In flew our super-heroine
When things could not be duller
Wielding trusty pen and palette
She filled our world with colour

She hit us with her magic brush
A splash of pink, a blob of blue
And now aligned, trimmed and curated
At last we're very arty too

Without ________ we wouldn't know
Our Hockney from our Picasso
That smudgy stain of marshmallow
We'd thought a Michelangelo

Our education's now complete
The rooms are bright, the edges neat
The cupboard's full of paint and card
To find much else there's awfully hard

So here's a toast dear Ms. __________
May your days be filled with sun
Your children all like Jonathan*
For you fill E9 with fun.'

* a particular favourite of the student, (yes, I know, teachers are not meant to have favourites)