8 of 13

Write now Article Tools

Art is a reflection of the society it comes from. Through art we learn history, explore ideas, create the world we live in and dream. Children usually enter the public school system as delightfully creative and free thinking. Very quickly, in a process of learning to color the clowns nose only red, color in the lines, stand in line, write your letters just the way they are show and so on ....creativity is stolen away. The process of education with its focus on how well students do on "multiple choice" tests and memorized facts stiffles and rejects creativity more and more with the passage of time. At last, we reach adulthood and most proclaim that they are not creative and have no talents to foster. When it reality, they really need to reclaim what was stripped from them.

However, the subject of art in schools has become just as acedemic as science and math. Test books teach color theory in primary grades and lessons on art history and art appriciation fill more class room time than creating art do. This is done so that students once again can pass those standardized tests and rank the school itself with high marks. Therefore, even the class that is supposed to be about being creative is really only learning that other people are creative and reading about them.
I have an Art Teaching degree, K-12. I also have two sons of my own that I homeschool. In my experiences in teaching art to children, the teacher is really only a guide...giving an idea. When young children see and adults work, they generally are discouraged to try. For they look at it and know their own abilities can not live up to the example they have been shown...and then they lack the desire to even try. Focusing formal art classes on showing adult's work in elementry level classes is very detrimental to young student's creativity.
For years, when parents asked me how to foster a young students creativity my answer has been the same and it still remains the same. Give them blank paper and lots of markers and crayons and paints and supplies...and get out of the way.
Group several kids together...for one students ideas will feed the ideas of another.
The process of creating will teach them more than a formal test book class can.
There is plenty of time for "formal" teaching in later years and grades but first they have to have enough interest and desire to learn. It is far easier to kill that desire when they are young than it is to try to develop it later.

Learn more about this author, Paula Stahl.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about The pros and cons of formal art classes for children?
We want to hear your view. Write now!