The Humanities

Life In the Carolina's Podcast

On this episode of the Life in the Carolinas podcast, Carl sits down with Jeffrey Elmore who has, since 2013, served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from the 94th district which is made up of the population centers of Wilkes County and Alexander County. Outside of serving in Raleigh, Jeffrey is a public school teacher who has had the opportunity to teach visual arts, with a focus on painting and sculpture, to every grade level since 2001.

“I like interactions with people,” says Jeffrey, speaking on why he chose education as a career path and, eventually, public service. His journey as a teacher began when he underwent the South Carolina Teaching Fellows Program which granted him a scholarship at Appalachian State University, where he graduated with a BS in Art Teacher Education.

In this first year as a teacher, Jeffrey taught at Atkins, a low-performing, high-minority middle school, where he says he may just as well have gotten five years of teaching experience in one year.

In his own words: “What that experience made me realize was how different other people’s circumstances are to your own. For many of those kids, it wasn’t an issue of academic performance. It was almost an issue of life survival. It was quite sad to see a 12-year-old who was concerned for their own safety—some of them concerned about their next meal, some concerned about making it to school that day.”

Carl and Jeffrey touch on the vital importance of developing critical thinking skills in today’s globalized digital economy. It is a topic that never leaves Jeffrey’s mind, with his passion of education, service, and the arts. He believes that if the arts, including both fine and performing arts, were elevated in importance more than they currently are, critical thinking would skyrocket across the board. “Exposure to the arts,” he contends, “helps us not only understand ourselves; it helps us understand other people.”

To further illustrate the point, Carl and Jeffrey point to a variety of successful figures, including U.S. presidents, who have some exposure to the arts. Continuing along this thread, they remark on the idea that, without the humanities, it would be impossible to thoroughly understand the meanings behind the founding documents.

Jeffrey hopes that, in an age awash with technology, art, especially at the tactile level, continues to be embraced. “We are connected more than ever; but we’re also more disconnected more than ever.” On the other hand, “The arts are a reflection of the human experience.”

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