Process or Product Art ? ---- You Be the Judge
Let's begin with a working definition of "process". Art materials that are self -selected by a child and used by the child in the way that they deem appropriate and useful is called the "process." The use of a model is not required in order to complete the project.
In layman's terms, this is what some teachers and parents of young children call a "big mess". Allowing toddlers and preschoolers free access to crayons, markers, scissors, glue sticks, and heaven forbid, play dough and paints, is not for the faint of heart. I agree, it can be a scary situation, however, it is extremely important to a child's development. When working with art materials, children are learning to be creative, to make choices, building self confidence, and learning about their world as they experiment with different materials and tools.
In her new book, The Importance of Being Little, early childhood educator and author, Erika Christakis devotes a chapter to preschool "crafts" which place too much emphasis on the "product." That is, what the end of the art experience will look like and will it look like the teacher model, as well as every other child's. The use of "crafts" in early childhood settings is often times encouraged by parents as they comment that it is easy to see what their child has done at school. In a way, teachers also use this as an easy out to say, "see, we did this today." Much easier than saying, " today, Junior painted with blue and red and when purple appeared, he was blown away!"
Ms. Christakis, goes on to say that she believes that the "process not product" should be taken more seriously. Art is especially important for preschool children who are preliterate. For children who can't read and write yet, "artistic expression isn't a subject area whose worthiness for study could be debated. Rather it is a learning domain, like critical thinking or number sense."
The most ubiquitous "craft" by far has to be the red construction paper Christmas stocking adorned with the child's name written in glitter and a neat row of white cotton balls affixed in just the right spots. Children are called to the table 2 or 3 at a time and asked, "do you want to make a Christmas stocking today?" Children seem pretty sure that this is a good idea, partly due to the teacher's enthusiastic question or because, it's Christmas time and what kid doesn't want a stocking?
The teacher then writes the child's name with glue and the child is instructed to "sprinkle" glitter, usually green in color, only on to the glue. Easier said than done, my friends. Then a prepared number of cotton balls are given to the child and they are instructed to place the balls on the pre-glued space provided, once again, by the teacher. For children who are a little more "free-spirited", this can quickly become a way to dampen the warm, fuzzy feeling associated with Christmas stockings as they are reminded that , " I said, put in only on the glue" or "I guess you don't want to make a stocking since you aren't following directions".
As I was visiting in a classroom, I could overhear the next room as well as see into the room due to a half wall separating the two spaces. The children were being instructed to paint a turkey for the approaching Thanksgiving holiday. These children were mostly 3 years old and it was pretty obvious that paint and a paint brush were not familiar objects. Children were instructed to paint only the turkey picture (not the whole page) so, of course, almost everybody painted the whole page. Their papers were quickly taken ( as in grabbed off the table) and they were told, " you didn't follow instructions." "These don't look like turkeys, don't you know what a turkey looks like?" So, do you see anything inappropriate here? If not, let me give you a hint.
First, the children were all seated at the table at the same time and for a long time, they were not instructed on how to use the materials, they were were not developmentally ready to use the fine motor skills needed to "paint inside the lines" of the drawing and let's face it, they probably didn't know what a turkey was suppose to look like.
But I'm going to have to say, the best argument that children be allowed to enjoy the "process" of art and not be expected to follow a model to complete a "product" was observed in a 4 year old classroom. It was near Christmas time and the teacher had prepared various lengths of green construction paper and provided a background paper (brown) and some stickers for decorations. The intent was for a child to start at the bottom of the brown paper and stack up the strips of green paper. If they were in size order going from the longest to the shortest the end product would resemble a Christmas tree. The children could then use the stickers to "decorate" the tree. I noticed about 4 of these creations posted in the classroom and commented on them. These were "not exactly" what the model looked like, but they were really cool looking trees none the less. The teacher took me out into the hallway to show me the others that had been completed to resemble the end product and commented, " we can only display work that is "proficient" out here, that's why the others are posted in the classroom".
As my little friend Margot would say, "sad, sad".
Do you agree?
That's it for now!
Check back again!
In layman's terms, this is what some teachers and parents of young children call a "big mess". Allowing toddlers and preschoolers free access to crayons, markers, scissors, glue sticks, and heaven forbid, play dough and paints, is not for the faint of heart. I agree, it can be a scary situation, however, it is extremely important to a child's development. When working with art materials, children are learning to be creative, to make choices, building self confidence, and learning about their world as they experiment with different materials and tools.
In her new book, The Importance of Being Little, early childhood educator and author, Erika Christakis devotes a chapter to preschool "crafts" which place too much emphasis on the "product." That is, what the end of the art experience will look like and will it look like the teacher model, as well as every other child's. The use of "crafts" in early childhood settings is often times encouraged by parents as they comment that it is easy to see what their child has done at school. In a way, teachers also use this as an easy out to say, "see, we did this today." Much easier than saying, " today, Junior painted with blue and red and when purple appeared, he was blown away!"
Ms. Christakis, goes on to say that she believes that the "process not product" should be taken more seriously. Art is especially important for preschool children who are preliterate. For children who can't read and write yet, "artistic expression isn't a subject area whose worthiness for study could be debated. Rather it is a learning domain, like critical thinking or number sense."
The most ubiquitous "craft" by far has to be the red construction paper Christmas stocking adorned with the child's name written in glitter and a neat row of white cotton balls affixed in just the right spots. Children are called to the table 2 or 3 at a time and asked, "do you want to make a Christmas stocking today?" Children seem pretty sure that this is a good idea, partly due to the teacher's enthusiastic question or because, it's Christmas time and what kid doesn't want a stocking?
The teacher then writes the child's name with glue and the child is instructed to "sprinkle" glitter, usually green in color, only on to the glue. Easier said than done, my friends. Then a prepared number of cotton balls are given to the child and they are instructed to place the balls on the pre-glued space provided, once again, by the teacher. For children who are a little more "free-spirited", this can quickly become a way to dampen the warm, fuzzy feeling associated with Christmas stockings as they are reminded that , " I said, put in only on the glue" or "I guess you don't want to make a stocking since you aren't following directions".
As I was visiting in a classroom, I could overhear the next room as well as see into the room due to a half wall separating the two spaces. The children were being instructed to paint a turkey for the approaching Thanksgiving holiday. These children were mostly 3 years old and it was pretty obvious that paint and a paint brush were not familiar objects. Children were instructed to paint only the turkey picture (not the whole page) so, of course, almost everybody painted the whole page. Their papers were quickly taken ( as in grabbed off the table) and they were told, " you didn't follow instructions." "These don't look like turkeys, don't you know what a turkey looks like?" So, do you see anything inappropriate here? If not, let me give you a hint.
First, the children were all seated at the table at the same time and for a long time, they were not instructed on how to use the materials, they were were not developmentally ready to use the fine motor skills needed to "paint inside the lines" of the drawing and let's face it, they probably didn't know what a turkey was suppose to look like.
But I'm going to have to say, the best argument that children be allowed to enjoy the "process" of art and not be expected to follow a model to complete a "product" was observed in a 4 year old classroom. It was near Christmas time and the teacher had prepared various lengths of green construction paper and provided a background paper (brown) and some stickers for decorations. The intent was for a child to start at the bottom of the brown paper and stack up the strips of green paper. If they were in size order going from the longest to the shortest the end product would resemble a Christmas tree. The children could then use the stickers to "decorate" the tree. I noticed about 4 of these creations posted in the classroom and commented on them. These were "not exactly" what the model looked like, but they were really cool looking trees none the less. The teacher took me out into the hallway to show me the others that had been completed to resemble the end product and commented, " we can only display work that is "proficient" out here, that's why the others are posted in the classroom".
As my little friend Margot would say, "sad, sad".
Do you agree?
That's it for now!
Check back again!
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