Ah, high school art teachers. I remember them well. I think the reason they're so condescending and pretentious is because that's what their art teachers were like when they were in high school. They expect you to be doing the next Monet, and when you don't they get the pleasure of telling you how worthless your art is.

Well, okay. Maybe I'm not being fair. I did have a good art teacher in high school, but I also had one that seemed to think she was Michelangelo reincarnated (Uh, you're teaching in high school, lady) and she did not have a nice thing to say about anybody's stuff. Now I welcome constructive criticism, but hers was hardly constructive. I wonder why they didn't fire her, looking back.

But now I'm going to college for art (3D animation actually, but we take a LOT of traditional art classes) and all my teachers are great. They really know what they're doing, but there's none of this high-horse stuff going on. They all have good advice and my art skill has improved tremendously thanks to them. I never really learned anything in my high school art classes, and when I started college I was worried I would just get more mean-spirited, unhelpful art teachers. Fortunately, it's a really good school ^_^

So just to let y'all know: Not all art teachers suck XD

So just to let y'all know: Not all art teachers suck XD

… like this teacher I had in art college who taught me a cheat in drawing perspective.

None of that vanishing point stuff. He relies on grids and explained it in a very easy to understand manner.

My old art teacher sucked though. He was smelly, plus he kept bothering the female students all the time.

To provide an alternate view: There's this substitute teacher at my school who's perhaps the most awesome lady on the planet, but she hardly lets anyone get done with their assigned work, so we always end up having to do it for homework/not get it done and have the normal teacher come in and yell at us.

That being said, I did have an art teacher this past year who expected all the kids to sit down, shut up, stop walking around, and work on our projects every day during the entirety of class until they were due. As someone who usually finishes stuff like that quickly, it's rather irritating to have someone breathe down your neck “WORK ON YOUR PROJECT.” “I'm done.” “NO YOU'RE NOT. GET IT OUT AND WORK ON IT OR I'LL REPORT YOU.”

Reading all this has made me realize I've been pretty lucky. Not all the teachers I had were nice guys, but I never had a really bad one…