Unknown elective

Here at Dixon High, we have a pretty wide variety of electives to choose from. When choosing elective classes, students usually tend to select the obvious electives such as fashion, foods, art, journalism, ect. But one elective that Dixon High offers to us, doesn’t quite  stand out as much as the others and has become somewhat of an “unknown elective”. That elective is ceramics.

I interviewed Mrs. Larson, the ceramics teacher to get her opinion and insight on why she thinks not many students know about her class. I started off by asking her some background questions about herself and her own history with ceramics. She told me she had been doing ceramics since 1964, and she got interested in it after attending art school, while taking general art classes, she hated her jewelry class, and fell in love with ceramics. “It was the only way I could express myself and led me to immediate job opportunities,” she told me when I asked her why she liked it so much. When I asked her favorite thing about it she replied, “You can change it a lot, and create anything you want”. Mrs Larson said she thinks that ceramics is a good class to take because it makes students think three dimensionally. She said that students don’t usually take the class seriously at first, they usually clown around and aren’t mature enough at first, but they really enjoy it after they get into it.

Since there is a Ceramics 1 and a Ceramics 2, I asked Mrs. Larson how she determined what should be made, or what is capable of Ceramics 1 and Ceramics 2 students, “Ceramics 1 learns to do basic hand building techniques” she informed me, and from there you carry what you learned in Ceramics 1 to further apply and perfect it in Ceramics 2. I asked her if she thought that her Ceramics 2 students take their projects more seriously, than her Ceramics 1 students, she said about half of them take it more seriously. Finally,  asked her the big question: “Why do you think not many people know about your class?” She replied,  ”I don’t think they or their parents really know or understand what it means.” When I had asked her that question, a student that was in the classroom overheard and said he thought students just said that class seems like it would be hard, so not many students choose. it.

With all this being said, is ceramics really an elective worth taking? Where do we see ceramics being used in our daily lives? Well, the plates and bowls we et from are all ceramics products, as well as a lot of other things we may posses. Also, some of the thing you make are chosen to be shown in Dixon Highs art fair. I myself, am in Ceramics 1 and love the class. I think it’s a great experience, and I think a lot of people would be surprised in what they end up creating.