I had a good week visiting some elementary schools. As usual, it was a lot of fun and it sufficiently wore me out. While at Dimmick School in Illinois last Friday, I was doing a session with students in kindergarten through second grade. They were all very well behaved and attentive. Towards the end of my presentation, while I was drawing one of the second graders, a little kindergartner (who just so happened to remind me of Kim) got out of her seat and walked right up to me at the front of the room. She said nothing, but held up her arm as high as she could in my direction. In her grubby little fist was a pencil. Upon further inspection, I could see that it had a broken point. “You need your pencil sharpened?” I guessed aloud.
She nodded.
“Well why don’t you go sit down for now,” I said. “And when we get to the drawing part, we’ll get that pencil sharpened right up.” That seemed to satisfy her, and she turned around and walked back to her little chair.
That’s why I find these expeditions into the educational system to be fun – you never know what you’re gonna get. One thing I can usually count on however: that the kids will be excited about drawing. It certainly doesn’t take long for those pencils to start smoking as soon as I give the green light for the kids to try out the techniques I’ve just demonstrated.
Provided that the pencils are sharpened, of course.
Here is a shot of me scouting the talent field for a junior designer. Perhaps I should contact NBC about setting up an off-shoot of The Apprentice…