Dave Roberts

Some people, over time, never lose their sense of adventure or their wide-eyed curiosity or their boundless creativity.  Art teacher Dave Roberts is one of those lucky folks.
   
Lucky for his students, too, that his zest for life is contagious.
   
Roberts grew up in a rural area in southern California. It was an orange-growing  community, a playground nirvana for young boys.
   
“The idea of adventure was every bit of what our day was about,” he says of his youth. “We were always outside, exploring, building, playing.”
   
When his fourth grade teacher Mrs. Carlton told her students to pick a book from a list, he grabbed The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  The story fit right in with Roberts’s affinity for fresh air and inventing contraptions. After the last school bell rang, he and his pals jumped on their bikes and rode from their Kimberly Elementary School down to Crescent Street where the Roberts family lived.
   
“We were allowed to turn ourselves into outside kids and go across the street to the canyon and emulate everything that we read about,” he recalls. “And Tom Sawyer with all the different stories and things he got involved with, well the book was just a natural connection for me.”
   
Roberts remembers identifying with Tom Sawyer, who made fun out of everything yet enjoyed himself, cared about the people around him, and lived the life he wanted to lead. Even the characters surrounding Tom and their mischievous ways reminded Roberts of his own group of buddies and their antics.
   
“That’s what the whole story of Tom Sawyer was all about,” Roberts remarks. “It was one of the beginning books that opened the door for me.  It’s that kind of personality that he had. He was fearless. He was willing to stand on his own, take life as it came, and make fun of it. There are obviously serious times but they shouldn’t hold you back.”
   
Roberts didn’t have a river to play in, but he had train tracks to horse around on. He and the other boys used to throw adobe dirt clods at the train as it roared by. Roberts imagined where all those passengers on the train were headed, where they came from, what kind of lives they led.
   
At ‘Iolani, his art classes are powered by imagination and following one’s instincts.  Roberts has never met a student who didn’t have some creativity beneath the surface.  His key in harvesting that creativity is to establish a program that challenges individuals to reach and build confidence.
   
“Every step reinforces new discovery and reliance on intuition,” he says of his approach towards education. “Teaching was always about being with kids and enjoying their excitement about learning. It is that whole journey of discovery.”
 

1. 

   Jane on 1/21/2009 at 6:15pm

   Hi Dave...just read your story and I wanted you to know that I can clearly see you and your buddies...dirt clods and all! Thank you for being such an inspiration to our faculty and students. You make a profound difference in the lives of so many.
   Way to go (or throw).
   Jane

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