"Every child is born an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." -- Pablo Picasso

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In fifth grade, my teacher had the class make construction paper jack-o-lanterns as an "art" project. Everyone else made theirs with triangle eyes and big, toothy grins; mine had a frown and almond-shaped eyes that were leaking fat, black construction paper tears. It was my two-hour opus, a representation of myself that my teacher was afraid to understand.

When she saw it, she told me that "no one wants to see a sad pumpkin. Jack-o-lanterns are supposed to be happy!" If I wanted credit, I had to do it over.

I listened to her, weighed my options, and did the mature, productive thing any ten-year-old would do: I screamed at her, tore it up, and threw it away.

I spent the rest of the day in the principal's office.

I learned a valuable lesson that day, though: school places no value on self-expression, or nonconformity, or "Eureka, I've got it!"s. Art is not art, in school, it is an exercise in copying others, and striving to achieve someone else's idea of perfection--a systematic method of driving the innate creativity of children out of them. I only wish it weren't so efficient at doing so.