"The Mall"-- Blog 5

In elementary school art the kids feel as if they have one goal to reach. "The Mall". What they are really aiming for is that when their art is exceptionally good, Art Lady will take it and hang it up at the art show held a t the mall.
When its time for the kids to pack up Art Lady rings the chimes and they start to clean up. She will always tell one person from each table to collect all the drawings and to go and put them on the angel table. Today there was a little girl named D and for being in the fourth grade, shes a pretty good artist. Well when the bells chimed and one person from each table collected the kids underwater scene drawings, someone saw D's and soon there was a riot. The riot was to see this masterpiece of a shark drawn from the prodigy, D. They made it seem like the best thing they had ever seen. Then, I heard it. "Now, that's going to the mall", mumbled by another fourth grader. I didn't really understand what they meant but I didn't really pay any attention. Soon the kids in the little riot group were all saying "That's going to the mall", "Give that to Art Lady for the mall", "The mall", "The mall", "The mall". Finally I asked Art Lady and she said that "The mall" was were all the really good art goes on display to show parents and other people in the community. On the other hand, the kids were acting like "The mall" was some other world were the "good art" fairy comes and takes them over the rainbow and they crash into a pot of marshmallows or something. It was obviously a big deal.
I remember being in elementary school and seeing older kids art or classmates art that was like twenty times better than mine and just being in awe of that person. I guess that would be like seeing other teenagers driving really nice, new cars. Its like, you cant help but admire them and their car. To me it seems like it doesn't really matter how old you are, there's always competition going on between you and other people your age. Whether its who has the nicest car, the best grades, or the best fish drawing. Its just strange to me that there is that kind of pressure and sometimes disappointment in elementary school art. But I guess its good for them because it is preparing them for the future, but still. Strange.