trying to hold on to the things i like about this profession
written on 2024-05-13(naruto filler episode 409 in the background)
i want to get better at blogging in small ways more frequently. i've been wanting to do this for a few months now, so hopefully it will be a continued practice, but it's fine if it isn't. i had in mind a fun feature to incorporate (code) onto the blog but i forgot what it was...
yesterday morning i was thinking about teaching because i've been wanting to read the digitalfire blog, which is a good resource for learning about ceramic firings. i feel especially clumsy lately at work, realizing more and more that i have less to offer in terms of knowledge and that my students frequently know as much as, if not more, than me in some areas. i have one student who is very disciplined about glazing her work, is constantly doing research on facebook forums consulting other potters about combinations, hacks, firing tips, etc. one way in which my ceramics knowledge has always been stagnant is in the domain of firing -- i've never received formal training on firing science, only basic tutorials on how to fire an electric skutt...
but firing is a critical part of the ceramics process and also the most opaque because of the heat and chemistry that happens in the kiln. but thats not what i'm thinking about today...it's more so that i really indulge in that specific satisfaction of telling people things, answering their questions and being as thorough as possible. yes..and here's why, and what not. something that i encounter pretty regularly teaching middle schoolers at my other job is that they often ask me how to spell specific words. instead of telling them how to spell things i usually ask "how do you think it's spelled?" and then work through the word phonetically. i think this comes from something my dad used to do with me and my brother when we were kids: he would pose a question and ask us to guess the answer. often this was frustrating but it definitely stuck with me as a way to position myself into inquiry rather than just simply receiving information. i also think it's just playful and sometimes creates friction, which feels important in small interactions like that.