Tim Burton:
I drew from the very beginning. And then what seemed to happen is as you went through school, you know, teachers say, oh, well you shouldn’t draw like this. You should draw like that. So by time kids got about like 10 years old. They could think they couldn’t draw. Even if somebody was telling me I couldn’t draw, I still liked doing it.
I was lucky enough to have a teacher who didn’t try to force me to draw a certain way. She, she encouraged people to sort of, uh. You know, whatever sort of strength they had to kind of go with it and kind of do their own style or do their own spirit of work. And it also was a way of exploring your fantasy life and your, you know, emotional core.
A conversation I had recently brought up my memory of this Tim Burton interview. The discussion was about how teachers often kill kids’ aspirations early, before they get a chance to complete the beginner phase. Or they try to fit a child into a certain way.
In jiu-jitsu, a similar thing happens, but to both kid and adult students. A bad instructor can nitpick a student’s technique to the point that the student decides they’re just not good and then they quit. Or, an instructor may force a student to move a certain way, or play a certain game, stifling the student’s creativity.
Lately, I’ve been trying to be give my students more room to mess up. While I do want everyone to “look good” as they perform techniques, I care more that they’re functional. I can allow for some “ugly” technique. If I can improve their efficiency and effectiveness, I will, but if the move works for them, that’s enough. For now.