For reasons not entirely clear, these days I seem to be getting invited to do a lot of high school assemblies. The principal will gather the several hundred youngsters into the gym (on one side only, so everyone can see my easel), introduce me as “Mr. Joe McKeever from New Orleans. He’s a cartoonist and has a message for us today on ‘lessons in self-esteem he has learned from drawing 100,000 people. Let’s welcome him.”
And that’s how we start.
But I had started 10 minutes earlier. After setting up my easel on the floor of the gym (with cardboard under the metal feet), I began sketching teenagers as they entered the gym. Kids love this sort of thing, and soon a crowd had gathered. I can do one drawing per minute, so a fair number have been sketched by the time the school leader settles everyone down and gets us started.
The teens already know what I do, since they’ve seen the drawings, and are excited.
Earlier, the principal or his/her assistant has given us names of several teachers, the coach, and a couple of boys and girls to call out of the stands to be sketched. The best students to draw are the ones who, as soon as we call their name, everyone screams. They think, “This is going to be fun.”
And it is. It’s all about fun, but with some important lessons thrown in for good measure.
For the first half of the program, I sketch these adults and youth, then for another 12-15 minutes, launch into my talk about “lessons on self-esteem I’ve learned from drawing 100,000 people.”
What are the lessons? There are five.