Art teachers everywhere face the fact that many students struggle with creativity. Call it a crisis in creativity or spend your time looking for culprits, it is what is. This struggle manifests itself in the art room as copied Disney characters and anime sketches. But what if fan art isn't the scourge we've made it out to be? What if fan art is actually a way for a number of students to get and stay engaged with the arts outside of class. Andrew brings on Tim to hash out the debate.

Listen to Tim rant about anime (4:00), and check out the guys' discussion on the importance of originality (13:00) and keeping kids interested in art once they move beyond our classrooms (21:00).

Resources and Links:

• Check out Andrew's article about originality that he mentioned
• Take a listen to the episode that originally brought this conversation about
• AOE writer Melissa Purtee also shared her thoughts on Originality and Plagiarism