"GET THAT CORN OUTTA MY FACE!!"

Jack Black screams this great line in the movie Nacho Libre. After he makes a fool of himself -in front of the nun he has a crush on- and much to his chagrin, his wrestling partner, Steve, offers him some corn on the cob smothered in mayonnaise and chili pepper, apparently a tasty snack in Mexico. Nacho, Jack Black's character, at this point of the movie is frustrated with the things that are happening in his life. He keeps on losing wrestling matches, his fellow monks at the monastery don't appreciate his cooking, he's falling in love with a nun, and his efforts to improve the life at the orphanage are doing little to help the little orphan boys there. Nacho is just itching, going crazy to do something, anything, and to do it well... And then his friend offers him corn on the cob, only to have them slapped out of his hands and yelled at.

I have been sitting in class for the last twenty years straight. Five years ago I made a goal for myself, to become an art teacher. Now I have thousands of dollars in debt from tuition and books, written pages upon pages of assignments, sat through countless hours of lectures, possess portfolios stuffed with successful and unsuccessful art pieces in storage, and am entering the final four months of my educational journey only to be told "You will be a grade three math teacher... if you're lucky." This is what we receive practically every lecture. Get that corn outta my face!! Listen, I've spent three years honing, not to mention my entire life prior, my specialty. It's what I'm good at. It's what I love to do. And you are going to cram it down my throat that it was a complete waste of time? Get that corn outta my face!!

Occasionally when I describe to others, "I want to become a high school art teacher", their response is "Oh really? What kinds of jobs require art?" Get that corn out of my face!! I didn't just spend the last five years in an over hyped institution to have them tell me that my degrees are useless to the progress of society. What kinds of jobs require art? What kinds of jobs require logarithms? What kinds of jobs require quadratic equations or the table of elements? What kinds of jobs require that you do five laps around the gym or know the life cycle of a moth? Jobs that require art are jobs that demand creative problem solving, process management, spontaneous adaptability, patience, endurance, focus, ownership, heartfelt intuition, aesthetic discernment, visual communication, unhindered imagination, public speaking and presentation skills, and employees that take criticism as a learning opportunity. Don't tell me that art is just about drawing and painting (why the other mediums are left out of this stereotype is beyond me), because if that's the case, then life is just about making money and dying. Get that corn outta my face!! We know that's not true.