Tag: school

Categories
creativity

Accounting for Creativity

Do you want to enhance your creativity? Take an accounting class! No, I never thought I’d say that either. In fact, I never thought I would be in one until this year.
I’m not saying we should get creative and cook the business books either. What I am saying is I learned there was this whole world I knew little about. Sure, I run a a business and balance my books, but there is so much more to it.
I’ve learned how to read an annual report. I now know how a balance sheet balances, and I learned different terms mean the same thing. But even more important, I have some more knowledge that helps creativity.
Whenever you learn something new, you have have new possibilities for writing, and new metaphors for design and illustration.
What is something new you want to try today?

Categories
School Cartoons

Plugging Hope at School

Cartoon of two students. A boy says, "Should we abandon all hope, or keep plugging through fourth grade?"

Cartoon of two students. A boy says, “Should we abandon all hope, or keep plugging through fourth grade?”

Sometimes, it just feels like hope is a distant goal to grasp, doesn’t it? I remember hoping and praying that school would be over soon. Thirty years later, I can tell you there’s hope. Hold on. You’re break will be here before you know it.

Categories
cartoon

Teaching Goofy

Cartoon of a boy and a teacher. The student says, "You're goofy, Mr. Schmeltzer! I like that in a teacher."
Cartoon of a boy and a teacher. The student says, “You’re goofy, Mr. Schmeltzer! I like that in a teacher.”

Categories
cartoon

Student of Doom

Cartoon of a boy and a teacher. The student says, "I think you are giving me bad grades merely because I am a prophet of doom."
Cartoon of a boy and a teacher. The student says, “I think you are giving me bad grades merely because I am a prophet of doom.”

Categories
Adobe Photoshop illustration School Cartoons Teen Cartoons

Grad Fashion

I’m taking a short break from the tutorials to catch my breath. My son graduated from high school this last Sunday. It’s been crazy, to say the least. We’ve been driving all around the countryside to celebrate at open houses. Indiana and Ohio roads have become quite acquainted with us.

I drew this sketch when I thought of how silly caps and gowns look to kids. Isn’t that the way things work? At one time, a cap and gown look so dignified. And I would say even today, if you know what they represent, they look dignified. But to a child, or someone who is comfortable with the extremes of casual fashion, they can feel quite silly.

Graduation is a time we celebrate accomplishment and the next step in a person’s journey. Like those cap and gowns, it can feel uncomfortable, even silly as we take the next phase of life’s journey. Can anyone remember the first day of school? It wasn’t a relaxed, comfortable day for me! Yes, I felt silly and awkward. How about your first date? First kiss? How about the first time you held a paying job? They can all be awkward, silly feeling times.

That’s why feelings betray us. We need to strive to make it through those clumsy times, knowing there is a goal we are striving to reach. I smile when someone says they don’t want to try something because it doesn’t feel right. When I hear that, I try to remember ANY time, I felt comfortable trying something new.

So here’s my graduation speech for the class of 2011: When you go out to the real world, you may feel wobbly, like a newborn animal. You may wonder if what you’re aiming for is right because it just isn’t coming easy. Hold on! If you have a God-given dream to do something, know it may not come easy, it may feel weird at first, but pursue it anyway. Once you get pass the awkwardness, you can toss your cap in the air and graduate to the next level in your life.

Congratulations, class of 2011! (And congratulations, Garrett!)