Betsy Dill teaches 3-D Art, Drawing In Depth, Fearless Public Speaking and Studio Art at CHESS. Here she shares about her love of teaching, passion for homeschooling, and belief in CHESS students.
I have never been asked what I do for a living without receiving a big smile and a positive response from total strangers.
If it is after a school tragedy, they thank me as if I had been there protecting their children. If I explain that I am an art and creative writing teacher, they tell me about their favorite teachers and/or what fun they had in one of those subjects. It’s like being a mall Santa Claus. I get a good rep just because I’m wearing the suit.
I especially love telling people that some of my students are homeschooled, and high school students at that! Then, I get the chance to educate them on how homeschooling works. Over the years, (17 of which when I homeschooled) the homeschool movement finally shed its moniker as the Twigs and Berries Brigade and morphed into the smart alternative, especially after school bullying and violence escalated. Most strangers cheer me on for operating OUT of the public domain.
I especially love telling people that some of my students are homeschooled, and high school students at that! Then, I get the chance to educate them on how homeschooling works.
But it took some years to get here.
After VCU, I spent years in the high-pressure world of advertising as an illustrator and copywriter. Persuasion is one of my strong suits, but it consumed every working moment. Worse, the need to “meet the deadline or else” loomed every night. Eventually, I realized that I was selling America down the river just to make a good living. Writing words that made people dissatisfied with their lives or their possessions and assuring them, in print or illustration, that their lives would be so much better if they would just buy (fill in the blank).
Just when I would have quit that career, I married, had a child, and ultimately ended up homeschooling him through high school. Back in the day, people frowned when they saw middle school kids trotting alongside their mothers in Walmart, and some days, it’s true, I’d place a hand on his forehead as if he were feverish. Every year I asked if he wanted to go to school and every year he assured me that he would run away from home if I tried. (I took that as a vote for homeschooling.) He taught himself everything he needed to land a great job in IT at a young age, which he does to this day. Married now, father of three, and apparently not maimed by his exposure to my wildly creative approach to schooling, we both fared well.
Every year I asked if he wanted to go to school and every year he assured me that he would run away from home if I tried. (I took that as a vote for homeschooling.)
But after he left home, I realized I had time for yet a third life stage. I illustrated children’s picture books for a while (too time consuming and I missed seeing people) before I walked into a Christian school one day with a portfolio of artwork and an offer to teach. Amazingly, all the things I learned while homeschooling, worked in the classroom too. I DID however learn that school really is school. And if the family can swing it, and the parents want to do it, I believe that homeschooling is preferable to ANY school no matter how pricey or well-intentioned.
If the family can swing it, and the parents want to do it, I believe that homeschooling is preferable to ANY school no matter how pricey or well-intentioned.
I have also taught public school kids at a test prep center for the last nine years (for those who aspire to be accepted by one of the elite charter schools in the area) but my biggest joy has been working with CHESS students. If you ever become jaded about the state of the world or the kids of today, you will be lifted up after even a brief encounter with CHESS students. They’re funny, they’re smart, and they know what they believe. They encourage each other and work at overcoming their anxieties. Best of all, they are loved, by both parents and teachers alike.
Truly, I have the best job in the world.
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