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Springboro teacher has spent  a lifetime devoted to the arts

Peter Berwald selected Art Teacher of Year by peers

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By Kaitlyn Black Contributing Writer 8:35 AM Thursday, November 12, 2009

SPRINGBORO — Growing up in Amherst, Mass., and surrounded by educators, Peter Berwald makes a natural teacher. He has been active in the arts since he was a child, and his lifelong efforts paid off when he was recently selected to receive the prestigious Art Teacher of the Year Award by the Southwestern Ohio Education Association.

As a youth, Berwald, 47, enjoyed comic books and started drawing and writing stories, often with friends. “Over time I realized I had a passion for it,” he said.

While attending the University of Massachusetts, he coached volleyball. He had not considered teaching, but while actively doing so, he discovered he enjoyed the experience. He received undergraduate degrees in art and art education, and later a masters degree in education from Syracuse University. He has also taken classes from the Rhode Island School of Design, Wright State University and the University of Dayton.

His work has been published three times on the cover of the Ohio Art Education Association publication. He also has produced illustrations for a calendar for classified school employees. He recently produced work for the Upper Crust restaurant in Springboro.

He has taught at six different schools throughout his career, and is now devoted to Springboro High School.

To become an effective art teacher, Berwald said he employs communication. “To teach art, which itself is communication,” he said, “you have to communicate to communicate.”

He said there are certain qualities that make good teachers: the ability to explain goals and objectives, to make the course relevant, to inspire the students and to keep an open mind regarding them.

A typical day in Berwald’s classroom involves a good deal of productivity, not just set-up and clean-up. He directly guides his students, demonstrates techniques and has seen many of his students win art awards and pursue art in college. He said his own artistic influences come from such artists as C.F. Payne and Charles Scheeler.

“A lot of my heart is with the modern artists,” he said. He uses the other artists’ work to demonstrate techniques in the classroom.

Art education, he feels, plays an important role in the world of modern schooling.

“Since we’ve broken down facets of life and categorized them, I think art is as integral a piece of the pie as all the others,” he said. “Everything from the clothes we wear to the houses we live in, all connects to art.”

He believes an educational world without art is incomplete. “In this climate of job losses and people deciding what’s important,” he said, “I’m nervous about the loss of classes as a result. Who decides that art, music, or physical education are not important to the development of children?”

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