Thank you thank you thank you Marty and Loren!!!
School is going full blast and is tiring but rewarding. A boy hugged me yesterday because I recognized how smart he was and held him up in class as the high bar in critical thinking for the day.
I'm sure no one has praised his critical thinking in public before. First gen to college, ghetto, military, and creatives in non-creative households in our student population have hidden visual and articulate abilities in their natural world. When they come to our academic setting you really have to tune your radar to find them and encourage them to excel. I'm getting better and culling the lazy ones from the ones who are just pretending to be dumb because it's part of their school persona.
Creativity has the power to change people's lives. Lots of these folks have not been in a creative environment before or had someone validate their visual thinking and right brain visions.
I love my job.