LESSONS
LEARNED FOUR LONGTIME TEACHERS SHARE THEIR THOUGHTS ON WHAT EDUCATION MEANS TO THEM PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN MICHAEL SIMPSON
SEEING THE BIGGER PICTURE
L
eslie Burwell sees every new
class of students as a fresh canvas, another chance to inspire creativity. “That’s what keeps me in education,” says Leslie, describing the talent she sees in her classroom studio at Northwood High School in Pittsboro. “They blow me out of the water.” The 26-year teaching veteran disputes the claim some people make about teenagers wasting time on arts and crafts. “No, they’re not … they’re creative,” she says, adding that open-ended prompts can help students make connections. “They are so intelligent, and they’re putting their focus into what they’re passionate about. We just need to find what they love and then let them have enough time [to express it]. I feel like the arts are so connected to emotion, and [it] is a really great tool to teach them critical thinking.” Leslie, who initially planned a career in art therapy, has an interdisciplinary bachelor’s in psychology, theater and art 88
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from the University of South Carolina. She earned a post baccalaureate certificate in art education from Meredith College and is a master’s candidate in art education at East Carolina University. “[It’s] a privilege being a visual arts teacher at the high school level,” she says, recalling a long list of former students who have careers in a creative profession or have become art teachers themselves. “That makes me really proud to know that I’ve impacted those lives enough [for them] to become educators. … It’s a difficult profession, and it doesn’t make as much money as other professions, but it’s a joy.” Leslie grew up visiting museums with her art teacher mother as her father’s ministry took them from one city to another. Her mentors today are still producing art and teaching well into their 70s. “I’m not sure if I can physically do art teaching and set painting and all the things I do when I’m 70,” she says. “I really do believe that I could still be contributing. The plan is not to really retire from teaching but to have a studio.” Although Leslie paints when she carves out time for herself, she is still drawn to the classroom as her canvas.
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2021
Leslie Burwell teaches across a variety of artistic mediums – sculpture, printmaking, sketching and photography, to name a few.