When my eldest daughter Rachel was in her sophomore year of high school, it became clear that she was having problems. She was bouncing off the system and it was leading to depression and low grades. Realizing something had to change, Rachel started studying education. She was eager to find out if there were other ways to learn. What she discovered was an entire other world known as “innovative education”.
The idea behind innovative education is rather than endlessly making students memorize and regurgitate information, it’s a project-based system where the students can craft projects of their own interests and then, with the help of teachers, integrate the education into the task at hand. The idea is that kids learn better if they’re more invested in the process and the practicality of what they’re learning is more visible. The system usually involves some number of days of internships where the students learn skills interacting with the real world. (Also, it doesn’t use traditional letter grades, but rather a system of competency reports.)
Rachel realized that this type of education was what she needed, so she tracked down innovative schools in the Seattle area. Her top choice was a school called Highline Big Picture. It was forty-minutes away from our home. It took some convincing, both of my wife and I and of the school itself, to let her transfer mid-year, but it’s hard to stop Rachel when she gets her mind to something and she managed to convince everyone that it would be for the best. (Regular listeners of “Drive to Work” know I spent over a year driving her to school – she now has her own car.) And it was! Rachel has thrived at the school. She’s now a senior and has recently been accepted to five colleges and wait listed at one (with seven more we’re yet to hear from).
So what does this have to do with Magic or my blog? Well, I wanted to find a way to help out her school. Highline Big Picture is amazing, but it’s in a low income school district and has a lot of financial challenges. That’s when I ran across a cool idea. Magic artists are allowed to sell playmats and prints of their illustrations. It turns out by some weird twist of fate that I actually am a Magic artist (and only by the most technical of definitions). In Unglued, we wanted a “child’s drawing” for one of the cards and I stepped up with the bold claim of “I could be that child!”.
I illustrated the card Look at Me, I’m the DCI using a method I believe to be unique to me. I drew eighty different versions and picked my favorite. I am also, to the best of my knowledge, the only artist in Magic to embrace the medium of crayon. (Finally, as I only got paid $1, I think I’m also the only Magic artist whose supplies cost more than they were paid.)
You all now have a chance to be part of this story and purchase a Look at Me, I’m the DCI playmat or print. The playmats are a high definition of my crayon masterpiece and are all individually signed by yours truly (see the photo above). All the profits from the playmat and prints are going directly to Highline Big Picture School. So please, if you’re all inclined to support the crayon arts and innovative education, please go to the following link (https://www.originalmagicart.store/collections/mark-rosewater) and purchase a playmat/print or two (they make great gifts).
To everyone who purchases something, thank you so much. You’ll be helping out a whole bunch of great kids and a wonderful school.Mark
Reblogging to get the word out and help support alternative learning styles in education!
Check it out people!!
Look At Me, I’m Doing Charity
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