intersecre

I’m enjoying this little spate of visual posts so to follow the flow …

Early childhood and primary school teachers can make or break a child’s education. The underpinning skills and attitudes towards creativity and various cognitive activity develop through these years, and while I think the actions of parents CAN override what would otherwise be negative outcomes, the results can be catastrophic.
It’s pot luck really. Apart from actually moving school, your child is pretty much stuck for a whole year (at least) with one teacher and their strengths and weaknesses.
There are two things that (to make a very broad generalisation) primary education does really badly as a result – art and maths. I’d include music in here as well but often schools do have a specialist teacher or at least someone with specific skill who adopts the ‘music teacher’ role.

I have a nephew, now architect, who as a small child had quite extraordinary drawing skills. From around 3 yrs of age he used the old joined computer paper to create detailed scenes of events. Largely with pens he drew things like fire scenes with people jumping from windows, fire trucks arriving etc that were a couple of metres long and in great detail.
I lived with his family during his first months of school. On day 2 he came home and drew a figure 8 cat. When we quizzed him on this he said that his teacher told him to do it that way. By the end of the week he was so stressed his parents pulled him back out of school.

The same mentality puts colouring in books in children’s hands.
WHY!!! Children cannot draw like the images in those books. IMHO this act is number ONE cause of the ‘I can’t draw’ attitude in adults.

I grew up with an artist mother and drew and painted and created in every spare minute. So given these experiences its not surprising I guess that a large focus of my undergraduate education degree was childrens art.

As a preschool teacher there was never a day without a wide range of creative opportunities and there was always a paint brush available. With parent helpers I modelled the non-judgmental “tell me about your painting” discourse with the kids and their houses were filled with glorious free-range art. The children felt good about themselves as creators and artists …. for then at least.

[image: tiffanywashko]

But one instance sticks in my mind. In one preschool centre I had a girl who lived with her single father and who I was sure was being abused. To this day I regret that, in those days and in the location, I was unable to take successful action. For 6 months she did not speak to adults or children. But for 6 months she painted. Hundreds of paintings. And eventually one day she spoke to me – about her work.

Our resulting population that lacks the visual literacies Alex mentions is a direct result of a vicious circle of a culture of paint-by-numbers. Until we break that cycle through education I’m not sure how it can be addressed.