<p>I can understand where you are coming from. I had art teachers who were like that too. It can really just depend on where you go. I’ve heard of fine art teachers who came from art schools or top liberal arts art departments. My art teacher in highschool went to a state school but one of my friends art teachers went to RISD. Nevertheless, art teachers are so important. While my teacher wasn’t a leading or even working illustrator she was so supportive and encouraging. She let me finish normal class assignments and work freely and she supported me taking art classes out of school. She wrote me a really great recommendation letter for college and was a really great friend. For a lot of art teachers, having a lucrative professional career is not their passion. They just love to make art and they love to work with kids. But if you really want to, you can have a successful career in both. If your daughter is set on art school I’d say she should go for illustration and then when she graduates and has all her opportunities before her, she can decide if she wants to go into education and be the better art teacher for it.</p>