Short on Everything
By Jocelyn Moye
Montgazette Staff Writer
Frank Short wants his students to get angry.
Even confused or hurt. Some may laugh at themselves.
And that’s a good thing.
His critical approach to teaching inspires a span of reactions.
Short’s classroom approach is reflected in his book: “Short on Everything,” which covers all the bases: food, religion, politics, pop culture, family, sex and his Irish-Catholic heritage.
For nearly 30 years, Short has taught Montgomery County Community College students on subjects that include digital and fine art, graphic design and advertising. The Philadelphia native and graduate of Tyler School of Art wrote the book as a way to take his creativity to another medium.
“The aesthetic principles of fine art and graphic design are similar,” he says. “It all comes from the same place.”
Short applied this perspective to writing.
He describes the book as “a collection of essays that are critical observations mixed with enhanced memoirs.”
His students soon learn that the book reads as if he’s leading a classroom discussion.
Every word, like his in-class critiques, is unabashedly straightforward and laced with humor.
Although some students find this approach overwhelming, it ensures they won’t forget the importance of critique as they continue working.
Short says he approaches instruction by “bringing discipline to things outside of the discipline,” which keeps students engaged.
This outside-in approach to his critiques and lectures often develops from his classroom observations. He reels-in students of the texting generation back into the moment. Short’s essays are tangential, yet they wrap up to make a distinct point.
The book of critical essays, like Short’s instruction, leaves an impression.
When asked about time spent in his classes, students have markedly different reactions. Some are unappreciative of Short’s no-holds-barred critiques, while others laugh as they re-count the ways that he berated their art.
“Every drawing I thought was bad, he liked, and every drawing I thought was good, he didn’t like,” says Ryan Godman. He says Short’s standards were higher than expected for an introductory-level drawing class. “I think he saw where I could be, but I just couldn’t tap into it.”
Although the two butted heads over what makes a good drawing, Godman says that his art improved dramatically by the semester’s end.
Brian Muntzer, an art education major, says the similarity between Short’s book and his instruction is simple.
“It’s his philosophy of being himself,” says Muntzer, who has consulted Short in his studies to become a teacher. In the book and in the classroom, Muntzer says Short uses his experiences.
Reading “Short on Everything” gives students an understanding of Short’s philosophy.
The chapter, “Short on Talent,” describes art students as being gifted with “an inflated view of their own abilities.” Through higher education, they are turned into “jaded, cynical, chain-smoking nihilists,” Short writes.
These statements are not only limited to Short’s societal observations. In his years at Tyler, Short found himself transformed into an all-black wearing coffee and cigarette dependent.
Short’s fine art has been exhibited in the Woodmere Museum, Philadelphia Print Club and various small galleries. His graphic design work has been featured in national ad campaigns. It won’t be surprising if the at-once entertaining and thought provoking “Short on Everything” finds an audience with many readers. Or becomes a pocket guide for his students.
Frank Short’s essays from the book can be read online at: http://faculty.mc3.edu/FSHORT/2005/frank%20short%20biography.htm.
The Montgazette 