I shall state my case forthrightly—I have yet to solve the issue of student clean up. It’s been a perennial problem for me.

This year, things culminated about half way through the year in my painting class and I refused to clean up after my students any longer. I was done with constantly feeling like I was always behind schedule due to my students sneaking out leaving brushes and palettes in the sinks.

Don’t misunderstand, at the beginning of the year I teach all students what set up and clean up looks like (unique for each class, of course). For my painting class that translates into cleaning brushes and palettes and wiping down tables. Once I demonstrate clean up, I dirty a spot in front of each student and monitor their clean up of each table. Of greater importance, I dirty brushes and make each student clean it properly in front of me. I use this opportunity to teach brush anatomy, proper brush loading and brush maintenance.

You may call my efforts overkill, but I thought it was a worthwhile endeavor in keeping with my regular classroom teaching methods of demonstration and practice. Well, it didn’t yield much long term. I spoke sternly to the class on a couple of occasions, reteaching brush cleaning accordingly. But, to little avail.

In the end, I informed the class that I would no longer clean up after them; if they left the brushes dirty they would stay dirty. And, so, the number of brushes dwindled.

I decided to purchase a 20-brush set from Michael’s for $4.00 (normally, $5.00) and sell them to the students. Many students jumped at the opportunity while others balked (some shared against my wishes). I’ve since told students that if they keep these brushes well, I will repurchase them for $2.00 and sell them again next year. We’ll see how that goes.

So, how do you do it? Art teachers speak! Please, let me know what strategies you use for managing student clean up.