Winter 2022, in the long anticipated break after a stressful semester, I wanted to challenge myself to learn to draw animals. I decided to start with birds. I tried drawing on my own, but it ended up looking more like a disfigured sculpture of an animal that vaguely resembled a bird.
Well, time to find a tutorial. Luckily, I came across this lovingly passionate artist called "John Muir Laws" on YouTube. He had a class on how to draw birds, except it was not just a class on how to put lines on paper. It was also about learning to see. Did you ever notice that a bird’s eyes sit right on top of its beak? Or how their feathers changed length depending on how far it is from their body? Seems simple, but these little details make a huge difference when drawing.
In an hour, I had a good sketch of a beautiful bird. I never considered myself skilled enough to draw birds as nice as that but there I was, with a sketch of a bird. This is the thing about exceptional teachers. He didn’t just teach me how to draw birds; he taught me how to SEE them. What to see in them, why birds have specific feathers and where their legs connect. I was shown that I could do something that I convinced myself I was bad at and I was no longer scared to draw birds.
That is something AI wouldn’t be able to do. Yes, it would show me a million links on articles on how to draw birds. It might give me some encouraging statements to keep drawing. It might give me images of birds. But it doesn't necessarily draw by itself. It doesn't understand why I'm confused.
The things I noticed about that tutorial were: 1) His insane passion, which I found myself subconsciously mirroring, and 2) His explanations of how birds “work” and why he was making certain strokes. 3) He cleared up common pitfalls students make when they first draw birds. I remember seeing the same traits in my high school physics teacher. He liked teaching Physics. He taught us why something was important or why it exists and he explained common misconceptions. These traits to me are very human. We need teachers to show emotions, we need their curiosity to answer your questions, we need their experience with mistakes to learn about misconceptions.
I find it amusing how some people in the tech industry push the narrative of a changing future with AI replacing teachers, while blatantly disregarding the fundamentals of learning: a good teacher, an interested student, and a scenario or question to kickstart the process. The fundamentals will stay the same. The desire to have our questions about the world answered, the need to mirror someone's excitement and connect with them, the longing to make memories while learning - they won't change. And personally, I believe the role of a teacher - to make the pursuit of endless curiosity less scary, won't change. The need for empathy and reassurance that making mistakes in learning is without question, timeless.
Now, if I'm stuck on any problem, not just in drawing but also in academics, I feel more comfortable playing around with it, observing it through different lenses and distancing myself from being a student who has an assignment to finish to an explorer who wants answers.
