A Teacher to Remember

"This is the class where you can find your soul, if you dare."  Mr. Freeman told his art students on the first day of art class.  "If you don't learn art now, you will never learn to breathe!"  Mr. Freeman is Melinda's favorite teacher; he pushes them to express their emotions through their art, cares about his students, and give almost everyone an A.  Mr. Freeman, from the book Speak was an character that greatly impacted Melinda from the first time he was mentioned in the book. 

Mr. Freeman teaches and grades his students different than most teachers do, because he has to.  What if you were taking an art class and when you turned in a project, your teacher told you that a ton of details that were wrong, basically telling you that your piece was terrible?  Mr. Freeman had to give most of the students an A for the class because there was no other way of grading them.  The only way you can grade art is by effort.  When Mr. Freeman got in trouble for giving all of the students an A, he took a chisel and sliced his canvas that he had been working on for a while.

Mr. Freeman should express his emotions because he is art teacher and in art, you express your emotions.  Mr. Freeman expressed his emotions in many different ways other than words.  For example, his art always showed his emotions or feelings.  Also his emotions were shown through his actions, like slicing his painting with a chisel because he was upset that his budget had been taken away.  I think that part of the reason Mr. Freeman ruined his painting is because he had painted the school board members in a jail, and it was like they had broken out and taken more away from him.

Meanwhile, Mr. Freeman cares about the problems that his students are having in life.  He wants to help them fix their problems, it probably has something to do with the fact that he wants them to discover themselves and find their soul.  An example of this could be when he offered Melinda a ride to where ever she was going before he knew how close or far he would have to drive.  He wanted to help her.  Another example is at the end of the book when Melinda finishes her project and starts to cry. 

Mr. Freeman notices quickly that Melinda "has been through a lot" and gives Melinda the strength to tell him what happened.

In the novel Speak, Mr. Freeman is an intriguing character.  He teaches his students in a different way.  Most teachers don’t care about their students as much as Mr. Freeman does.  He wants them to find their soul, learn to breathe, and create a masterpiece.