Children need art and stories and poems and music as much as they need love and food and fresh air and play. If you don’t give a child food, the damage quickly becomes visible. If you don’t let a child have fresh air and play, the damage is also visible, but not so quickly. If you don’t give a child love, the damage might not be seen for some years, but it’s permanent.
But if you don’t give a child art and stories and poems and music, the damage is not so easy to see. It’s there, though. Their bodies are healthy enough; they can run and jump and swim and eat hungrily and make lots of noise, as children have always done, but something is missing
It’s true that some people grow up never encountering art of any kind, and are perfectly happy and live good and valuable lives, and in whose homes there are no books, and they don’t care much for pictures, and they can’t see the point of music. Well, that’s fine. I know people like that. They are good neighbours and useful citizens.
But other people, at some stage in their childhood or their youth, or maybe even their old age, come across something of a kind they’ve never dreamed of before. It is as alien to them as the dark side of the moon. But one day they hear a voice on the radio reading a poem, or they pass by a house with an open window where someone is playing the piano, or they see a poster of a particular painting on someone’s wall, and it strikes them a blow so hard and yet so gentle that they feel dizzy. Nothing prepared them for this. They suddenly realize that they’re filled with a hunger, though they had no idea of that just a minute ago; a hunger for something so sweet and so delicious that it almost breaks their heart. They almost cry, they feel sad and happy and alone and welcomed by this utterly new and strange experience, and they’re desperate to listen closer to the radio, they linger outside the window, they can’t take their eyes off the poster. They wanted this, they needed this as a starving person needs food, and they never knew. They had no idea.
That is what it’s like for a child who does need music or pictures or poetry to come across it by chance. If it weren’t for that chance, they might never have met it, and might have passed their whole lives in a state of cultural starvation without knowing it.
The effects of cultural starvation are not dramatic and swift. They’re not so easily visible.
And, as I say, some people, good people, kind friends and helpful citizens, just never experience it; they’re perfectly fulfilled without it. If all the books and all the music and all the paintings in the world were to disappear overnight, they wouldn’t feel any the worse; they wouldn’t even notice.
But that hunger exists in many children, and often it is never satisfied because it has never been awakened. Many children in every part of the world are starved for something that feeds and nourishes their souls in a way that nothing else ever could or ever would.
We say, correctly, that every child has a right to food and shelter, to education, to medical treatment, and so on. We must understand that every child has a right to the experience of culture. We must fully understand that without stories and poems and pictures and music, children will starve.
Written by Philip Pullman for the tenth anniversary of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2012
CONSIDER: What was your childhood like and how did the arts play a role in your development? Why did/do you want to make art? How would you describe your learning style as a young child? How will you address the innate need of your students to create?
Why do children make art?
For children of all ages, art-making is a means of engaging and fostering all their senses in making order of their worlds. They crave deeper learning and expression, creating art expands their sensitivity to the world and provides a means to express the worlds that live inside each of them. The power they feel as they create a symbol, for the world invites children to construct, convey and share what they know about the world Imagination, emotion, spirit and the inherent desire to create, in the process integrates their social and aesthetic selves. As our students grow we must offer them the space to explore their sense of identity, their uniqueness, their self-esteem and facilitate room for personal accomplishments. We must move our students forward carefully consider the conceptual levels they are at.
A simple answer to this question is that children simply make sense of the world and their experiences within through world throughout the exploration of artistic mediums. Self-expression, communication and an uninhibited sense of amazement and wonder arise when given the freedom to explore materials in their own way. Often we dismiss the inherent importance of art-making as a time passing activity yet studies remind us over and over again that all forms of art-making are essential for a child’s healthy development.
According to MaryAnn F. Kohl artmaking builds:
Communication Skills: Art can provide a language and method of communication for feelings that otherwise might not be expressed verbally.
Problem-Solving Skills: When given the freedom to experiment children will test the possibilities as a means to explore their creative selves, they will work through challenges and make their own assessments teaching them that an answer may have more than one solution. The ‘how and why’ of the child’s brain becomes engaged and the child is figuring out new ways to handle the unexpected outcomes.
Social & Emotional Skills: Art-making promotes positive mental health through the skills and accomplishments each child creates. If provided the proper encouragement and freedom, children begin to see that their unique way of expressing themselves is a powerful tool and part of building positive self-esteem and through active role-playing and appreciation of one another effort, community growth is developed and fostered.
Neurological Development: Early childhood is the ideal stage to teach children all the different artistic disciplines because they easily absorb complex information. Children who are exposed to theatre skills are likely to develop more open-minded and empathic through collaboration and communities, they are developing metacognition and meaning-making. Hands-on activities such as painting and drawing play a significant role in their personality development and psychological maturity and they develop fine motor skills. Making and listening to music helps develop their intellectual, auditory, sensory, speech and motor skills. Through literature, children are able to develop cognitive skills such as memory, language, and imagination. Bodily expression and movement teach children to carry themselves with confidence and maintain their flexibility and natural ability to move, run, and jump. It also helps them with their balance, coordination, and bodily control.
According to Kimberly Sheridan, Ed.D., coauthor of Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education, “It’s not as easy to test the skills that children learn from the arts, but that doesn’t make them any less important”. She noted though that participating in a school arts program increases a child’s ability to:
- Observe the world carefully and discard preconceptions in order to envision something and then create it
- Go beyond just learning a skill to express a personal voice
- Problem-solve and persist despite frustration and setbacks
- Reflect on the results and ask what could improve them
For children of all ages, art-making is a means of engaging and fostering all their senses in making order of their worlds. They crave deeper learning and expression, creating art expands their sensitivity to the world and provides a means to express the worlds that live inside each of them. The power they feel as they create a symbol, for the world invites children to construct, convey and share what they know about the world Imagination, emotion, spirit and the inherent desire to create, in the process integrates their social and aesthetic selves. As our students grow we must offer them the space to explore their sense of identity, their uniqueness, their self-esteem and facilitate room for personal accomplishments.