Janet Kaiser on wed 20 dec 00
I can only testify as an onlooker, being neither
parent nor (currently) teacher. All the drawings
done by children visiting The Chapel of Art are
first put up on the wall, then as the space is
needed after a few days, put into "archives". We
have been doing this since 1995. Being a
tourist/holiday area, some children only visit
once a year. But they (and their parents) can
follow their "development".
It is sometimes sad to see how their work has
"deteriorated" when following their progress and
how the joy of drawing and the spontaneity of
early work (age 4 to 6) has been totally erased
from their work in a couple of years of
full-time education. When I talk to them, many
have been told they have no talent... "I can't
draw". When asked who told them that, it is
usually 1. parents, 2. teachers, 3. siblings...
They have all had a very obvious negative
effect. For a seven-year-old to say "I can't
draw" is something I find rather horrific, but
the longer I listen to the interaction of the
children and their parents, the more I realise
it is not surprising.
I often hear parents ask "what is that supposed
to be?" Others snatch the pen and "draw it
properly" or "improve" their child's work. This
never fails to either infuriate them or just
turn off their own interest in what they were
doing. Very few parents encourage them in a
positive or constructive way. If they are not
able to take time to interact with patience and
sensitivity when relaxed (they are on vacation),
what happens in the stressful everyday home
environment?
I have been most surprised at the number of
children who say they do not draw at home. Many
appear not to have access to materials outside
the classroom and several have said their
mothers do not like them "making a mess". Space
for what was a "basic activity" in my childhood,
also seems to be a factor. The average child
seems to have mountains of soft toys, games, TV,
PC, radio, CD player, etc. etc. but no desk! And
in the age of eating from a tray in front of the
TV, many homes do not seem to have a table a
child could sit at.
It is also distressing (for me) to see how few
children can even hold a pen or pencil! We
provide washable felt tips (their preferred
medium we have found) and the manipulation and
control is much less than one would expect in
the various age groups. I frequently see a 6-7
year olds holding a pen like a tennis racket and
poking at the paper like a toddler!
Art is apparently no longer part of the
curriculum in the UK. The "back to basics"
regime concentrating exclusively on reading,
writing and arithmetic in primary schools, is
(as far as I can judge to date) having some
pretty far-reaching consequences.
1. Physical, motor, tactile skills: poor
manipulation of tools and materials.
2. Creativity: inability to transfer thoughts
and ideas to paper. Indeed, there appears to be
a low level of creative or fantasy thinking,
certainly not visually and in many cases
verbally deficient too.
3. Attitude to Art: a devaluation of "art" in
the eyes of the children, because it is not
valued within the system they live and are
educated in. Teachers and parents do not value
it, so why should they?
4. Hi-Tech: If it is not an interactive gadget,
it is perceived as being of little value to
anyone.
Interactive creative play of early childhood,
when children learn so much, is now being
confined to passive watching (TV) or mindless
games (Nintendo, etc.).
There are naturally exceptions, but this is what
I see as the average. For every child I see
drawing with energy, skill, enthusiasm and
creativity (including the appropriate adult
feed-back), there are a dozen who fall far short
on several or all of these counts.
Everyone on this list is pretty biased towards
creativity and promoting art skills in their own
and other's children. We must not forget that we
are the exception, whatever brought us to where
we are and what we are doing today. We are all
"specialists" in this respect, however much we
disagree with each other on trivial aspects and
however high or low we assess our own skills.
Outside our visually active and proactive world
it is quite different... A whole other ball game
out there folks.
BTW the children who come to draw and ask to see
their last work, are so proud when we get it
out... We have the only existing work of many of
them. Their parents have not kept any, but we
have. That does a lot for a child's self esteem.
You can see it in their little faces... And I
for one sincerely hope we are nurturing the
rebel in them! May they be contrary and continue
to draw and paint, even if their usual
environment is trying to knock it out of them.
Just like you M... You may have been deeply hurt
by your mother's attitude to your work, but did
it stop you? Apparently not. So there is hope
yet for all our small visitors... Only time will
tell.
Janet Kaiser
The Chapel of Art . Capel Celfyddyd
HOME OF THE INTERNATIONAL POTTERS' PATH
Criccieth LL52 0EA, GB-Wales Tel: (01766) 523570
E-mail: postbox@the-coa.org.uk
WEBSITE: http://www.the-coa.org.uk
----- Original Message -----
> My mother never saved anything i did as a
child or adult, refrigerator or
> not, and even removed some flat 2D artwork i
framed and shipped to her at
> great expense to myself, from coast to coast
when i was a struggling college
> student, she removed the work i did and put
pictures from a magazine and
> let me sleep in the room where my frames were
on the wall and my work was in
> the hall closet faced against the wall. The
hurt will terrible to me and a
> child could be heart stricken to find work in
the trash, too.
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