tales from art class

so my friend ashley, the art teacher/amazing photographer in clayton, nc, tells me a story...


i was having all my grades make self portraits for an official assessment. i gave every child a mirror so that they could look at themselves to create their portraits. i told them once they were finished to just leave the mirrors alone, because they like to play with them and that's how they get dropped and broken. as i was watching a kindergarten class i noticed a boy was finished with his portrait and was staring at the mirror and making faces into it. i reminded him that the mirrors were supposed to be used for drawing the portrait and if he was finished he needed to put his mirror down.  he says,

"i was s'posed to be using the mirror to draw?"

-yes, you were drawing a self portrait.

"i was s'posed to be using this mirror, to help me draw?"

-yes, you were using it to help you draw yourself....

"i was s'posed to use it to draw myself?"

-yes...

"i was?"

-yes, but if you weren't using to help you draw your self-portrait, then why did you keep looking in it while you were drawing?

"i was using it to see if anyone sneaked up behind me!"