Musing Upon an Art Teaching Career. Brian Hawkeswood.
Author: Brian Hawkeswood. At fifteen, I sat in a sterile room, the weight of anticipation pressing down on me. The woman across the desk, after scrutinizing my test results (what I thought at the time to be an IQ test) looked up and said, “We think you can work for the local council.” Her words echoed in my mind, a verdict on my future. I was a teenager attending a high school at Emu Plains, a suburb on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. The area was named by early European explorers who, in 1790, mistook the land for an island and noted the abundance of emus roaming the plains. These majestic birds, once integral to the landscape, were driven to near extinction in the region as settlers expanded their footprint. At the time, I didn’t grasp the true nature of the test I’d taken—it was an aptitude assessment, a tool designed to chart my potential career path. That evening, lying in bed, the ceiling became a canvas for my swirling thoughts. The notion of a life spent ...