Perry photo teacher named best in art

Dec. 21—One of the first things Perry High School photo teacher Megan Driving Hawk does with a new class is to immediately set expectations.

There will be no digital photography in this class, because there is a Career and Technical Education class dedicated for that.

There will be a lot of the basics, including F-stops, dark rooms, dodging and burning, and pouring chemicals.

"If they come to me, most likely they came to me for film," Driving Hawk said. "This is film. If they want to make a switch, I know it's not personal. Some students stay — and they absolutely love it.

"I have many AP (Advanced Placement) students up on that wall right there that thought they signed up for digital and then stayed and loved it and went all the way through."

Last month Driving Hawk was named the 2023 Arizona State Art Educator of the Year by the Arizona Art Education Association. She was nominated by Chandler Unified School District Fine Arts Academic Coach Angela Storey.

"She shows genuine interest in her students, her school community, cultural diversity in schools, and in creating systems that work best for students and staff," Storey said.

The current generation of high school students grew up on social media, many have their own Instagram account. All they've ever known is digital photography. They've never had to wait to see a photo.

But they do in Driving Hawk's class.

"There's definitely that learning curve of, it's not going to show up right away," she said. "You have to develop it, you have to take all 24 pictures before you take the roll out of the camera.

"You can't take 12 pictures, take it out, and then put it back in tomorrow and take the rest of the 12."

Dark rooms are getting harder to find at America's high schools. CUSD has three, with Basha and Chandler Highs joining Perry on that list.

"I know Gilbert had one or two, and I think Phoenix Union had one," Driving Hawk said. "There aren't very many. When I was student teaching at Hamilton, Hamilton was ripping out their dark room at the time. It broke my heart."

Film is a lot more expensive than digital. In addition to buying the film, there's the cost of a dark room, an enlarger, the developer and fixer solutions, etc.

So why does Driving Hawk hold on to it when the rest of the world is moving on to digital?

"It's the basics," she said. "I fully believe, 100%, that film teaches you the basics like nothing else can. You can do the manual functions on the digital camera, you can set the ISO, the aperture, the shutter speed, but you can also cheat really easily.

"With film, there is none of that there. It's a long process and it slows you down. That's why I personally still do film."

It's not only dark rooms that have been disappearing in classrooms across the nation.

Many have called for cuts to arts programs and urged districts to focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). STEAM (with "arts" thrown in) gets talked about less.

"We are using all of that in this room all day, every day," Driving Hawk said of STEM. "They have to measure the right amount of chemistry in order to make the film develop correctly. They have to do each step for the right amount of time.

"They have to mix the chemistry properly. They have to use math, they have to do all of the things. You learn how to problem solve in an art classroom."

Driving Hawk said she hears many fine arts teachers across the state say their districts aren't doing enough for the arts.

Still, she said though she will advocate for more in CUSD, overall that district is doing a better job on the arts than others.

"We have a whole building to ourselves," she said from her classroom in the fine arts building at Perry. "I went to high school in s small town outside of Pittsburgh, and we basically had one building for everything. The arts had one classroom."

Driving Hawk said the recognition as the state's art educator of the year was great, but the focus remains on her students.