When Linda Schmale moved to Colorado in 1990, one of the first things she wanted to do was take a pottery class with Foothills Park and Recreation District. She was never able to get in, but, eight years later, she found herself teaching the class.
“I joke with my students that I always wanted to take a class, and the only way I could take a class was to become their teacher,” Schmale said.
Seventeen years later, Schmale is a full-time teacher at Gateway High School in Aurora, but still takes the time to teach adult pottery classes for
Foothills and has been a major influence on some students who have continued in the field.
One former student, Will Benson, whom Schmale taught at a charter school in Jefferson County when he was a teenager, is now helping her and teaching a secondary pottery course on the weekends at Foothills.
Benson credits Schmale for setting him on the path to study pottery in college and begin teaching.
“It was not an easy class,” Benson said. “Some maybe didn’t like Linda because of that. I really gravitated toward that attitude and it became a passion of mine as well.”
At Foothills Park and Recreation, she doesn’t give out grades and teaches a range of students from beginning to advanced in courses of five or six weeks. She said her current class of 12 has an age range of 18 to 70. She teaches from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Thursday evenings at the Ridge Recreation Center, and it’s usually tough to get into a class as there are a lot of repeat students.
“It’s great — she’s creating a little dynasty here,” said Foothills Park and Recreation art supervisor Regina Smith.
Schmale takes pride in the work her students produce and hope they learn that they are capable of creating something or at least gain an appreciation for pottery and ceramics.
Another student Schmale has touched is Michelle Swafford, who took a class at Foothills shortly after graduating high school in 1998. She started with the mind-set that it would just be for fun. Now’s she getting a master’s degree in fine art at Tulane University in New Orleans. She also had an article published in Pottery Making Illustrated magazine and credits Schmale as an ongoing source of inspiration and a main reason for her success.
“I think the most important thing is I still hear her voice in my head when I work,” Swafford said. “That’s pretty remarkable considering it was a community class that most people take for fun.”
Schmale is finishing her 10th year teaching at Gateway High School and finished a master’s degree at Regis University in 2010.
Schmale also took classes at Arapahoe Community College where she credits instructor Kathy Holt as the reason she got her teaching degree.
Holt and Schmale remain in contact and Holt said a lot of Schmale’s students end up in her classes.
“Having someone like Linda is a feather in (Foothills’) cap. She has so much experience. I’m really proud of her,” Holt said.
Schmale said teaching remains one of the “great joys of her life,” and she loves the camaraderie among the students at Foothills. She said she’ll stay on at Foothills as long as it’s fun.
“If it ever becomes a chore, I won’t do it anymore,” Schmale said. “It’s something I look forward to every night.”
Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, jvaccarelli@denverpost.com or
