We haven't used this blog for quite some time but felt it would be a good place to put our thoughts about our practice and values at Mangere Bridge kindergarten and in the ECE sector.
So here is our first update in quite some time and it was provoked by a Facebook post.
Today on Facebook I (Carol) came across a photo of an idea for an art activity using dinosaurs and the shadows they create on a long piece of paper laid out on the ground outside. This was on a NZ ECE teachers discussion page. At first I thought “oh that’s interesting” and followed the comments for a few down and then I started thinking about what exactly this is saying about art with children. I began to reflect on the philosophy behind this and it created an uneasy feeling for me. I felt quite confronted and found myself asking “What’s the difference between this and templates or colouring books” I wondered and then thought “Not a lot”. I went back to the page and tracked down further and found a comment by Jean Rockel, a thoughtful and wise University of Auckland academic who said”I think its terrible” and “its a technical exercise”
I feel I have to agree with Jean. This form of planned art experience seems to me to be telling children that they are not capable of drawing a dinosaur shape themselves and brings to the fore a myriad of questions “What is art, how do we support art, what is the role of the teacher/kaiako in art, how do we acknowledge the process and the product, all in a holistic, ako model of curriculum.
Te Whariki addresses art in the Communication strand telling educators that children experience an environment where “they discover different ways to be creative and expressive” but this is often taken as art planning for children should be about producing artwork the same as the others in the group , at the same time and using the same equipment, tools. This would seem to be about the technical not the creative.
The Tate modern tells us that “… technical drawing is a form of representation of objects that follows a set of international standards. Artistic drawing is the free representation of feelings, actions and ideas”.Oct 8, 2019
If we want children to be creative lifelong learners and lateral thinkers we need to look very carefully at what we present to them as art, what we believe about art and the place of art in the lives of the young children we teach. Noted educationalist Ken Robertson (2000) urges us to Consider art as a thinking tool. While there is a place for technical drawing in our society and communities, probably foremost in construction, architecture and computing, it is the free representation of feelings, actions and ideas we are hoping to foster and strengthen in our children in early childhood centres across Aotearoa Nz.
It seems to me also to be saying that children are not capable of drawing a dinosaur shape them selves and that their art should look the same as everyone else. I believe this art idea really does not meet the outcomes of being creative and expressive.
At Mangere Bridge Kindergarten our philosophy is built on seeing children as capable and competent learners and we believe there is no place in our planning or space for templates, adults who draw for children or the use of colouring books.
Our art planning starts in the same place as all other planning in the kindergarten. Our relationship with the child comes first, what do we know and what are they interested in? How can we support children to build on the skills and experiences they bring from home, the community and the kindergarten and nurture that spark of individual creative spirit that lives in all of us?
We often find that initially children have very limited experiences of art tools. paints, brushes, felts, dye, rollers etc and so we begin by providing open ended experiences where they can use the equipment and learn how these things work. We endeavour to provide a wide range of media to foster competence in representing ideas, clay ( modelling and we have a pottery wheel and Kiln), screenprinting on both fabric and paper, various pens, dye and paint.
We are often asked to draw for children and our response is always to engage with the child about what the child is trying to achieve and how we can support that. We have found much as Alford (2018) that if a child tells us they can’t do it , it is not that they can’t do it but that the child does not know where to start.
Until recently this child often wanted us to draw for her but now as we have worked together we can see the work she has put into her fabulous unicorn. And today several weeks after the unicorn a drawing of her family.
We talk about the shape of the unicorn, dinosaur, flower, octopus…. and point out the starting point could be the head, the stem, the petals etc. We stay to talk and work together reflecting Angela Annings words:
“Parents (… and teachers) can help by making suggestions, modelling strategies, looking at images in books or photographs or guiding their children to look at objects carefully, talking them through the outline shape and salient features of what it is they are trying to represent”.
Anning
Every Monday we are on the farm.These peacocks were painted after we saw them at the farm and took photos of them.
We want to see each child’s world through their eyes, to learn more about them and to build a relationship that supports learning across all curriculum areas. “As Malchiodi (1998) argues, drawing offers a window into children’s preoccupations, passions, problems and possibilities” p117
When we can look through that window and use children’s passions in their art work we see the most amazing creative viewpoints. Our children have drawn dinosaurs, all manner of animals and birds, flowers, trees, superheroes, popular culture figures in the most amazing colour and detail all from their perspective as we sit together and talk about their work and their interests.
Foreman (1996) writes ‘Art is an interpretation of experience. . . Art can help us look at how we look at life… Art becomes a tool for thinking”
George Foreman ( 1996) Negotiating with art media to deepen learning. Childcare Information exchange. March.
We don’t start with preconceived ideas about how any one drawing, painting, sculpture should look but rather ask how we can support the intellectual art process. We provide the tools and the materials, and use photos and artwork of well known artists to provoke and inspire, talking about technique and colour, shape and form, and the feeling in the creative experience. We believe every child is an artist and their effort is valued and displayed as they practice using the art tools and interpreting their view of the world.
It is important that adults respect the children’s growing sense of their own aesthetic sensitivities, rather than coaxing them into a formulaic way of drawing” p 119
This child created a backdrop for her puppet show for a daytime scene and a nighttime scene. She initiated the art work herself and carried through her plan.
Over many years we have worked to promote and protect children’s observational drawing and painting by creating a physical and mental space for the possibility of deep engagement in the creative process and by valuing the effort that goes into it. We document carefully the developing awareness of their own creativity in children and acknowledge their individual responses to the world around them.
Our physical art studio space is to the side of the main thorough fare area so that there is a designated room and lots of time to work through creative ideas alone or alongside others. At times children have collaborated on art pieces and these, with the individual efforts of many of the children line our gallery wall space, celebrating the variety of experience, viewpoint and perspective of all of the children.
No work is the same as another - and nor should it be as all of our viewpoints are different and individual. Ann Pelo reminds us
Each time children re-visit their work, their thinking deepens; they recognise inconsistencies, notice new details highlighted by a particular medium and see things from a new perspective, or discover connections among them. (Pelo, 2007).
We need barriers of beauty so that the world gets bigger
If you and your neighbour are creative we need not travel far
We need not walk far because paradise is just around the corner
(Hundertwasser, 1980)
When we accept the efforts of our children, support them to offer their creative perspective and acknowledge that art is a journey then paradise is indeed just around the corner.
