Drawing with a Grid

Each class is beginning new assignments this week. Art 1 is starting self-portraits. We are going to learn how to grid. I know that a lot of teachers hate the grid style of art, but to me, I think that it can be amazing to student self-esteem. When I was in high school, I never learned how to grid out a piece of art. We did grid activities with premade art that you filled in from a copy, but never really used the grid on its own. My teacher taught us face position and shapes, but I don't remember using grids to every help with drawing the face. I know that eventually I learned how to draw, but I ended up so frustrated at how my pictures would end up...never quite looking exactly the way I wanted them to look. All of the faces that I drew, ended up looking alike. Talk about frustrating!
When I started teaching, I looked at different ways to make my students feel successful when drawing. The grid really helps. It lets students look at a picture piece by piece rather than trying to figure out the whole thing at once. Sometimes that is just overwhelming. Some teachers claim that it doesn't teach kids how to draw and they become too dependant on it. Me, I think it gives them the courage to break away once they get the feel for faces and proportions. Do I teach the traditional drawing of faces...sure...but I don't force it on them.