I guess I haven't finished addressing my concerns about the lack of children's art and original projects being displayed on the walls of some school hallways and classrooms. This noticeable, sterile trend has been bothering me. Not simply because it devalues the very thing that children actually value, but it devalues creativity in education as being at least nominally acknowledged.
It's very uneducated, in my opinion.
A comment by a kindergarten teacher not too long ago is what concerned me. She had mentioned that a supervisor had told kindergarten teachers she didn't want to see artsy type of work on the walls - only "real" work like writing and numbers. But the real work of five-year-olds is cutting and pasting and drawing in preparation for doing writing and numbers!
What would these supervisors who dictate what's going up on classroom walls think of the Texas elementary principal who didn't allow ANY pre-made imagery to be put up in place of teacher or student-made. Teachers didn't run to the teacher supply store when it came time to change the the bulletin boards. Every classroom and hallway display was handmade -- created from scratch to be visually stimulating and appealing.
Sure it was demanding, but the students and teachers were cocooned in an environment that celebrated creativity as an integral part of academic life. They saw the thought-process made evident. I only wish I could have seen the distinct visual impact of this building. I heard about it from a teacher who taught there when I complimented her very cool bulletin board. Of course, she'd saved all the pieces to pull out when needed year after year.
My belief is those children were far more engaged than the kids spending their days gazing at slick posters they could never hope to reproduce, never seeing peer-created art work to learn from, ignoring walls of never-ending word lists, or trying to jumpstart their bored brains to find something new and interesting to contemplate in the steady diet of bland adult-generated worksheets they're given to consume -- color or fill in the blanks. Again, the lowest level of learning and engagement. A definite creative disconnect.
Children learn a great deal from seeing child-produced artwork and projects.
Showing posts with label art in kindergarten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art in kindergarten. Show all posts
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Taking Art-Making Away From Kindergarteners is Anti-Education
So, I was having another one of those headshaking conversations with a kindergarten teacher that makes me crazy. She mentioned that a LAUSD supervisor had told kindergarten teachers she didn't want to see cutting and pasting or art-type projects displayed on the walls. Teachers were only to put up real "work."
O my gosh!
As parents know -- and supposedly well-trained educators who've completed child development coursework -- the work of five-year-olds is cutting, gluing, drawing, painting, and gaining those fine motor skills in the right and natural way. You can't get to fluid writing until you provide those opportunities consistently.
Now, kids who have had this normally at home during their preschool years are prepared for the "rigor" of kindergarten. But, our schools are full of children who have not even made marks on paper. The teachers see the result of this every day. Yet their hands are tied. Instead of doing what they know is right, they are forced to make young children try to perform beyond their abilities. It just doesn't work. These kids need double the amount of cutting and drawing opportunities to make up for the deficit.
You know the catch phrase -- we need education reform. True reform means providing education that is developmentally appropriate. Kids learn through art-making. It develops half their brain power, their hand power, their focusing power...which must be in place to master the school-type subjects.
We get more for our education bucks when we provide systematic art education. I've personally seen it work. Just because California hasn't been doing it, in no way means it doesn't work. We have to teach young kids in the way they learn best. Through art. That way, teachers have a better chance of helping kids learn subjects that aren't so natural or of interest to them -- and get those all-important test scores that are important to...adults.
In other school districts that spend less per student, but still have their art programs, they know they can't get rid of them even in tight financial times. There's value in giving kids even 50 minutes per week of art instruction. It's really is so little time out of the frenzy of test prep, so it seems easily expendable. But schools get a big bang for that focused instruction devoted entirely to right brain thinking. It ripples out into the rest of the school day.
O my gosh!
As parents know -- and supposedly well-trained educators who've completed child development coursework -- the work of five-year-olds is cutting, gluing, drawing, painting, and gaining those fine motor skills in the right and natural way. You can't get to fluid writing until you provide those opportunities consistently.
Now, kids who have had this normally at home during their preschool years are prepared for the "rigor" of kindergarten. But, our schools are full of children who have not even made marks on paper. The teachers see the result of this every day. Yet their hands are tied. Instead of doing what they know is right, they are forced to make young children try to perform beyond their abilities. It just doesn't work. These kids need double the amount of cutting and drawing opportunities to make up for the deficit.
You know the catch phrase -- we need education reform. True reform means providing education that is developmentally appropriate. Kids learn through art-making. It develops half their brain power, their hand power, their focusing power...which must be in place to master the school-type subjects.
We get more for our education bucks when we provide systematic art education. I've personally seen it work. Just because California hasn't been doing it, in no way means it doesn't work. We have to teach young kids in the way they learn best. Through art. That way, teachers have a better chance of helping kids learn subjects that aren't so natural or of interest to them -- and get those all-important test scores that are important to...adults.
In other school districts that spend less per student, but still have their art programs, they know they can't get rid of them even in tight financial times. There's value in giving kids even 50 minutes per week of art instruction. It's really is so little time out of the frenzy of test prep, so it seems easily expendable. But schools get a big bang for that focused instruction devoted entirely to right brain thinking. It ripples out into the rest of the school day.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Want Better Test Scores in Low-Performing Schools? Double the Art-Making
I want to continue sharing my insights into kindergarten-age students from my last post.
When children enter kindergarten, they should have had two or three years of drawing experience already (progressing from scribbling to being able to make a representational person). That doesn't mean filling in coloring books that are adult-drawn! Kids are naturally inclined to start making marks between age two and three. You can't teach them to draw better. Just providing paper and crayon for making big movements, and lots of opportunity to create their own imagery, promotes the natural development of large and small motor skills. Kids draw first, then read, then write. That's the progression.
However, the schools are filled with kids coming to school without any practice. Too many homes don't have basic art supplies like paper, crayons, and scissors. Parents don't realize the value of providing this practice to help their children be school-ready, and this applies to affluent families as well as low income. So the kids simply aren't ready. But the kindergarten curriculum now starts at the point where this development should have taken place. There is no time provided in many kindergarten classes to make up for this lack.
If we recognize this and want to improve test scores, kindergarten -- as well as the early elementary grades -- needs to provide double the amount of time spent on art and creativity, not reduce it. The remedial work must be done through art. That's where the gap begins. Kids will then be more ready to take on the accelerated curriculum. Yet at schools where the students score low, the tendency is to cut out the art and"play" to concentrate on writing. Educators, who are trained in child development, are in such a bind. They know they can't leapfrog children's development, no matter how much the state regulators think it can be done.
Kids move through predictable stages of development. It's like learning to walk -- kids spend a lot of time crawling first, figuring it out on their own. It doesn't matter what the adult wants. Children develop on their own timetable to progress to the next level. If the state wants kindergartners to perform beyond their readiness, everybody's time, effort, and money is being wasted. Talk about a creative disconnect! School becomes an endless frustrating fog for these kids. On the other hand, engaging the kids in lots of art to address their developmental needs will do more to improve their abilities faster than giving them piles of worksheets to fill out.
I once received some state grant money to tutor very low kindergartners who were not school-ready. I knew from their backgrounds that they had not had regular access to crayons and paper. Our tutoring sessions involved art-making, not trying to make them to write sentences or sound out words. Scribbling, coloring, and painting worked towards fluidity of movement, teaching their fingers to grasp a pencil as they gained some control to make shapes. Cutting and playing with clay built up strength; gluing helped them focus. They were better able to process their own ideas. When children haven't built up the motor skills schools take for granted, and depend on for success, it's pretty difficult to prod them forward.
Providing art education would transform the kindergarten struggle into a more positive, forward-moving experience. We cannot leapfrog kids over their developmental stages, no matter how dire their test scores. Of course, the panic over scores results in a consequence to the principal who bears the brunt of low scores. It explains the unrelenting push to get kids to perform on subjects that aren't of natural interest to them .
One of the things making me the angriest is that these kids will struggle all through school. Lots of resources and interventions will miss the mark. We have to address the first lack -- no art-making. It only compounds as they get older and the curriculum gets harder. Schools have inadvertently become so one-sided -- lop-sided -- because they must teach only the left-brain type of thinking. The right-brain subjects need to be instructed, too. That's where kids are taught how to problem-solve and work with ambiguity.
Low-income schools with the best principals and fantastically dedicated teachers still can't get the results until we teach the whole mind. Business will continue to experience the "creativity gap" because workers coming from our schools have been taught there's one right answer instead of being able to think expansively. That's what extreme testing and accountability has produced.
When children enter kindergarten, they should have had two or three years of drawing experience already (progressing from scribbling to being able to make a representational person). That doesn't mean filling in coloring books that are adult-drawn! Kids are naturally inclined to start making marks between age two and three. You can't teach them to draw better. Just providing paper and crayon for making big movements, and lots of opportunity to create their own imagery, promotes the natural development of large and small motor skills. Kids draw first, then read, then write. That's the progression.
However, the schools are filled with kids coming to school without any practice. Too many homes don't have basic art supplies like paper, crayons, and scissors. Parents don't realize the value of providing this practice to help their children be school-ready, and this applies to affluent families as well as low income. So the kids simply aren't ready. But the kindergarten curriculum now starts at the point where this development should have taken place. There is no time provided in many kindergarten classes to make up for this lack.
If we recognize this and want to improve test scores, kindergarten -- as well as the early elementary grades -- needs to provide double the amount of time spent on art and creativity, not reduce it. The remedial work must be done through art. That's where the gap begins. Kids will then be more ready to take on the accelerated curriculum. Yet at schools where the students score low, the tendency is to cut out the art and"play" to concentrate on writing. Educators, who are trained in child development, are in such a bind. They know they can't leapfrog children's development, no matter how much the state regulators think it can be done.
Kids move through predictable stages of development. It's like learning to walk -- kids spend a lot of time crawling first, figuring it out on their own. It doesn't matter what the adult wants. Children develop on their own timetable to progress to the next level. If the state wants kindergartners to perform beyond their readiness, everybody's time, effort, and money is being wasted. Talk about a creative disconnect! School becomes an endless frustrating fog for these kids. On the other hand, engaging the kids in lots of art to address their developmental needs will do more to improve their abilities faster than giving them piles of worksheets to fill out.
I once received some state grant money to tutor very low kindergartners who were not school-ready. I knew from their backgrounds that they had not had regular access to crayons and paper. Our tutoring sessions involved art-making, not trying to make them to write sentences or sound out words. Scribbling, coloring, and painting worked towards fluidity of movement, teaching their fingers to grasp a pencil as they gained some control to make shapes. Cutting and playing with clay built up strength; gluing helped them focus. They were better able to process their own ideas. When children haven't built up the motor skills schools take for granted, and depend on for success, it's pretty difficult to prod them forward.
Providing art education would transform the kindergarten struggle into a more positive, forward-moving experience. We cannot leapfrog kids over their developmental stages, no matter how dire their test scores. Of course, the panic over scores results in a consequence to the principal who bears the brunt of low scores. It explains the unrelenting push to get kids to perform on subjects that aren't of natural interest to them .
One of the things making me the angriest is that these kids will struggle all through school. Lots of resources and interventions will miss the mark. We have to address the first lack -- no art-making. It only compounds as they get older and the curriculum gets harder. Schools have inadvertently become so one-sided -- lop-sided -- because they must teach only the left-brain type of thinking. The right-brain subjects need to be instructed, too. That's where kids are taught how to problem-solve and work with ambiguity.
Low-income schools with the best principals and fantastically dedicated teachers still can't get the results until we teach the whole mind. Business will continue to experience the "creativity gap" because workers coming from our schools have been taught there's one right answer instead of being able to think expansively. That's what extreme testing and accountability has produced.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
The Next Art-Free Zone: Kindergarten
It used to be that when art programs were slashed in the elementary schools, at least kindergarten was the last bastion of painting, drawing, and weekly, if not daily, art projects. Who couldn't imagine that five-year-olds would at least be the lucky ones still getting to enjoy their right-brain creativity exercises. One expects to find creativity still lurking around the corners of the kinder classroom.
But alas, anything that resembles art has been banished in some kindergarten classrooms. I'll never forget the day a kindergarten teacher ran into the art room on Valentine's Day, stunned that the principal had just made an upsetting proclamation. The little kids were coloring pictures related to the holiday. When the principal had come into the room, she acted as if the teacher was doing something wrong with her class. The principal announced that there would be no more coloring in kindergarten! They had to spend all the time getting in their academics.
Unfortunately, this true story illustrates the preposterous stress schools face. Second, we've lost all perspective about kindergarten age children. Third, art is "academic," regardless of the wild misinformation out there.
Where to begin sorting this out?
Since education was commandereed by the accountability movement (not necessarily an all bad thing), schools are ranked on test scores. We all know this. Meeting this expensive demand means less money has been available for what used to be considered normal components of education and the school day. Just to arm students with never-ending practice worksheets preparing for the tests has gobbled up school budgets nationwide (and mowed down our forests).
School administrators are in a bind: they have to carefully mind their budgets, even while their staffs copy increasing blizzards of worksheets. Copy paper is their most expensive item, often breaking the bank. Having taught in three states, I can attest to this universal response to test-prep. Art supplies can seem expensive. If a principal doesn't grasp the importance that art brings to the school experience, not only does the expense look frivilous, but the time spent engaged in a right-brain, authentic, hands-on activity once a week does, too. Employing an art specialist? A school could get two aides instead to tutor low-performing kids in reading or math. It's a trade off. It's not balanced, but the bottom line is panic over test scores. Period.
One of the consequences of the accountability push is that kindergarten has become the most pressured grade of all, in my opinion! In Texas, and I'm sure in other states as well, some of what had been the second grade curriculum has been shoved clear down into kindergarten. Five-year-olds are expected now to write sentences before they can even hold a pencil. Their day too is filled with worksheets. Some kids with a lot of experience under their belt can do this if their parents or progressive preschool provided it. But this push comes at the time when more and more kids are not getting the normal early childhood preparation that might enable them to do this. It's especially true in many low income homes.
A rather narrow, anemic view of "academic" has developed. Teachers are expected to cover a big amount of material. It ends up looking like worksheets and textbooks. It feels entirely left-brain. It's analytical, not creative. There is no time in the school day for teaching innovative thinking. But somehow, the adults making these curriculum decisions believe children will be able to do this without instruction or time spent cultivating it. They'd never do that with spelling or math. Let's face it, we have gotten stupid with all this testing. We've lost sight of the children and how they develop.
But alas, anything that resembles art has been banished in some kindergarten classrooms. I'll never forget the day a kindergarten teacher ran into the art room on Valentine's Day, stunned that the principal had just made an upsetting proclamation. The little kids were coloring pictures related to the holiday. When the principal had come into the room, she acted as if the teacher was doing something wrong with her class. The principal announced that there would be no more coloring in kindergarten! They had to spend all the time getting in their academics.
Unfortunately, this true story illustrates the preposterous stress schools face. Second, we've lost all perspective about kindergarten age children. Third, art is "academic," regardless of the wild misinformation out there.
Where to begin sorting this out?
Since education was commandereed by the accountability movement (not necessarily an all bad thing), schools are ranked on test scores. We all know this. Meeting this expensive demand means less money has been available for what used to be considered normal components of education and the school day. Just to arm students with never-ending practice worksheets preparing for the tests has gobbled up school budgets nationwide (and mowed down our forests).
School administrators are in a bind: they have to carefully mind their budgets, even while their staffs copy increasing blizzards of worksheets. Copy paper is their most expensive item, often breaking the bank. Having taught in three states, I can attest to this universal response to test-prep. Art supplies can seem expensive. If a principal doesn't grasp the importance that art brings to the school experience, not only does the expense look frivilous, but the time spent engaged in a right-brain, authentic, hands-on activity once a week does, too. Employing an art specialist? A school could get two aides instead to tutor low-performing kids in reading or math. It's a trade off. It's not balanced, but the bottom line is panic over test scores. Period.
One of the consequences of the accountability push is that kindergarten has become the most pressured grade of all, in my opinion! In Texas, and I'm sure in other states as well, some of what had been the second grade curriculum has been shoved clear down into kindergarten. Five-year-olds are expected now to write sentences before they can even hold a pencil. Their day too is filled with worksheets. Some kids with a lot of experience under their belt can do this if their parents or progressive preschool provided it. But this push comes at the time when more and more kids are not getting the normal early childhood preparation that might enable them to do this. It's especially true in many low income homes.
A rather narrow, anemic view of "academic" has developed. Teachers are expected to cover a big amount of material. It ends up looking like worksheets and textbooks. It feels entirely left-brain. It's analytical, not creative. There is no time in the school day for teaching innovative thinking. But somehow, the adults making these curriculum decisions believe children will be able to do this without instruction or time spent cultivating it. They'd never do that with spelling or math. Let's face it, we have gotten stupid with all this testing. We've lost sight of the children and how they develop.
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