In the Spring of 2003, I was a laid-off art director doing freelance work when I was approached to teach art at the high school in my town - Spotswood, NJ. There were two art teachers - one was a neighbor and the other was leaving after getting married . I was invited to teach on an interim basis, then was offered a contract and have been there ever since.

In 2005, I was offered a fantastic opportunity to take over the ailing tradtional graphics program and bring it up to the 21st-Century. I was given carte blanche to teach whatever I wanted for one school year, however I wanted to teach it. After that, I would design the curriculum for all of my classes and use them as my guides.

I chose to put my (then) 15 years of experience as a designer and art director to better use - to teach the students how to use the graphics software on the computers (my only requirement), but to teach them in a project-based environment where they could be creative and learn at the same time. The students would learn the software, but would also learn about design, history, preparation and execution - everyday experiences for skilled professionals around the world. The results were remarkable and continue to improve on a constant basis.

I'm very proud of the work I'm doing and the progress that I'm making, but I also realize how lucky I am that I was given this opportunity to make a unique difference in the lives of these students. I have the total support of my supervisors and administration, the board of education and the parents, my family and best of all my students. I understand that this type of freedom to teach is unusual here in the US at the high school level. Rigorous testing on a ridiculous level of frequency has watered down the educational system here and the parents blame the administrators and teachers, whose hands are often tied.

My program is very rare in the US and I'm hoping to change that if I have an opportunity to speak out more often in forums like this. But don't give up on publicly funded schools yet - just use the ones that work as a model for the rest.