Teacher 1999

In 1999 I enrolled in the Pacific Oaks College where I was taught by Quakers to teach in inner-city schools. I had had enough of surviving on $600 a month as a puppetry artist and I needed to make more money to achieve my goals of having a family someday.

I was a K-8 generalist with a puppetry background so I worked as a middle school art teacher and an elementary music/drama/dance teacher. I enjoyed being a teacher, but I was fighting a trend of art programs being obliterated because schools had to teach to the tests of “No Child Left Behind”.

I loved working with young people but it wasn’t enough income to support a family so I while I was teaching I was also trying to spin up a side-hustle of being an artist.