mrs. lee vs. the junk journaling community

Thinking about Mrs. Lee, my second grade speech teacher and my least favorite teacher of all time. I remember her as impatient, cross, rigid, and humorless. She did not “get” children and probably should not have gone into elementary education.

Specifically I’m thinking of the day she put a Note in My File. We butted heads twice that day. First, there was a picture that we were supposed to cut out, denoted by a dotted line and a little scissors icon. I thought the scissors icon was cute and wanted to cut it out separately and keep it. Mrs. Lee had NO patience for this. Second, after we cut out the pictures, we were supposed to hang them on the wall. At the time, I was pretending I was a robot. Robots cannot walk in diagonal lines; they only walk straight. This resulted in me taking a slightly longer path to the wall, for which Mrs. Lee also had no patience. We had a dramatic clash of wills, which she logged as “did not co-op. cried.”

I will note I was a willful kid. I will also note that I was not trying to cause trouble, was actively trying to do the assignment, and an ounce of patience and understanding would have averted all conflict. Ultimately it’s about respect and empathy for the child’s internal world, which Mrs. Lee could not comprehend, being stuck on having everything done Her Way Only. I want to go back in time and put a note in her file that she also did not co-op. It was a mutual failing.

Been thinking about this because “junk journaling” has become popular in art circles (or at least it’s recently wandered onto my youtube feed). It’s basically just freestyle art collage, but with an emphasis on not limiting oneself to “traditional” collage materials like ticket stubs or pressed flowers. Of course those things are fine, but you can also add in “junk” like a cool candy wrapper. Or the little scissors icon you saved from a worksheet in second grade.

In all honesty, if I had been allowed to cut out and keep that scissors icon, I would not remember it, much less still have it. As a kid, I was always collecting stuff like that and then didn’t know what to do with it. In third grade, every Friday we’d do a worksheet and then get a lollipop as a reward. I saved all the lollipop wrappers, pressed them flat, and stacked them neatly in my desk. At the end of the year I brought them all home in a brown paper bag. Eventually the bag got thrown out, probably when I moved in middle school, but maybe before then. The point is, if an iconic collection like that didn’t stand the test of time, the little scissors definitely would not have made it.

I wouldn’t have junk journaled with the lollipop wrappers, since they were a collection. Gotta keep them together. But I could’ve used all the stickers I peeled off fruits at the grocery store...

Anyway, as an adult, I’m not sure if I want to get into junk journaling. Collage is a slightly unappealing medium to me, since not everything on the page is truly mine. But it could still be fun? I did buy a cheap bottle of Elmer’s glue, so it’s there if I want it.