Why drawing needs to be a curriculum essential

Drawing has creative, expressive and educational value; it remains fundamental to translating and analysing the world.

Drawing remains a central and pivotal activity to the work of many artists and designers – a touchstone and tool of creative exploration that informs visual discovery. It fundamentally enables the visualisation and development of perceptions and ideas. With a history as long and intensive as the history of our culture, the act of drawing remains a fundamental means to translate, document, record and analyse the worlds we inhabit. The role of drawing in education remains critical, and not just to the creative disciplines in art and design for which it is foundational.

As a primary visual language, essential for communication and expression, drawing is as important as the development of written and verbal skills. The need to understand the world through visual means would seem more acute than ever; images transcend the barriers of language, and enhance communications in an increasingly globalised world.

Excerpt from an article shared on http://www.scoop.it/t/creativity-by-primary-english 
Article title: Why drawing needs to be a curriculum essential

Image source: www.flickr.com; happyfamousartists’ photostream

~ Donut Art Kits

Is homeschooling an option to parents in India?

I came across this rather intense article on Homeschooling, by Matt Walsh, a blogger, writer and professional sayer of truths as his FB page says. I read Matt’s entire article and found answers to many questions I have had on homeschooling.

I stay in Mumbai, India where going to a public school is a very significant part of our educational and social system. Till about 10 years ago, a good public school typically meant going to a convent and putting your kids in the same class as 65-75 other kids. Yes, unbelievable as it may sound, our third and fourth grade students do share their rooms with so many other kids.

Today, the parents who can afford it have the choice of private schooling but the fees are incredibly high and are no comparison to the convent schools. In the process, several large convents which focus on providing quality education to large numbers are taking in students from lower rungs of the society, while the children of the higher rungs get into private schools.

As a mother, I have often wondered what a parent is to do if he cannot afford the expensive private schooling and does not really want to put his / her child in the herd. Can homeschooling be an option to us here in India?

While we are lucky to have some really good teachers in our public schools, the fact remains that our overall education system is highly focused on rote learning and completing the syllabus. So expecting the teacher to pay attention to each student and enable them to grow as individuals seems like asking too much from the teachers.

My grouse is not even with the fact that the teachers do not have time for the individual study focus, my concern is how will my child learn values, how will he learn to appreciate the finer things in life, how will he learn how much of a difference a good teacher can actually make to his life, if he never really interacts with his teachers on a one on one level. If the child is always going to be one in the crowd, the only time my child will catch the teacher’s eye is if he is really brilliant or if he is really doing pathetic in class. Those are the only sets that the teacher will remember. An average child who seems to be chugging along, but could do brilliantly at something – given a little push by an encouraging teacher, will merely exist.

So can homeschooling, maybe in parts help, in the Indian scenario? Can parents take the onus of some part of the learning that we are expecting the children to do in school? Maybe we can help them explore the artistic, creative side of their personalities that get completely ignored in our highly competitive schools. Indian schools, convent and private, are all highly competitive, and while art and talent is encouraged at the lower levels; as students grow up, it falls by the wayside as parents and teachers direct the student’s focus towards academics.

Over the years, especially in India, it is easy to meet individuals who are toppers in their academic world and do extremely well at the workplace, but these individuals are uni-dimensional. They lack the facets that makes a person interesting, their thinking habits are linear and they look down upon creative pursuits as a waste of time.

It is my strong belief that if we as parents can inculcate a love for arts and crafts, for artistic or functional skills in children in their early years when we and they have the time, they will grow up to be well rounded individuals. These individuals tend to be more tolerant and are open to looking at and solving problems in new ways. You see, in creative spaces there is no wrong way to do something, this attitude leads to experimentation and exploring that can often be lost to those who shut out the creative activities from their life.

– Donut Art & Craft Kits

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Yes, time to include some homeschooling in India does seem to have arrived.

 

 

Art is good for your kids

Art lets the child find expression

“Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity” –Charles Mingus.

Can one challenge the creativity of children? Those little humans who don’t know what it’s like to be tied down by chains of insecurity, judgment, competition and perfection. We all want the best for our children. When doctors, teachers, and experts tried finding a way to make that happen, the answer was creativity. Learning by means of music, craft, painting a picture, knitting, kneading the dough, solving puzzles and playing simple board games.

The activities children participate in up to the age of ten are what help develop their learning pattern. Research says that children when exposed to creativity learn faster.

Art and Child Development
Science claims that creative learning helps develop the right side of the brain which captures music, images, colors, intuition and the expression of emotions. When considered from a different aspect, we see that art teaches expression. It has been observed that children who tend to be reserved express themselves through creativity. To them, creativity is what wings are to butterflies. Art teaches discovery. For example, while painting when children mix red and yellow together they create orange. Thus the child’s brain becomes engaged in the discovery of “how” and “why.” Art teaches us that our language does not limit our thinking.

Creativity in developing Motor Skills
Tying knots, or cutting paper to form shapes, squeezing paint from a bottle, and making small dough balls might look like insignificant tasks but they are worth a lot more. These seemingly insignificant tasks are what develop the child’s motor skills enabling him/her to do things like turning the page of a book or filling a paper with words.

Tactile Learning and Child Development
Tactile learning is based on the concept of learning by doing. The fact that it helps in our development is proven in our daily lives. For instance, how would you learn to play cricket? By reading a book about it or by actually using a bat and ball?

Music and Dance
Psychologists, neuroscientists and experts in early childhood development have demonstrated that music and dance does more for children than simply bring them joy; it helps their brain cells make the connections needed for virtually every kind of intelligence. It develops the child in various aspects- intellectual, social, emotional and their language skills. It helps them learn the sounds and meanings of words. Music strengthens memory while dance teaches self expression. Children learn to cooperate, compromise, share, and concentrate- while making music together- which become invaluable as they enter school, face new challenges, and begin to form new relationships. Research has shown that students taking courses in music scored higher in the SAT when compared to students who don’t.

But creativity goes far beyond the statistics measured by studies. It can become a crucial mode of uninhibited self-expression and amazement for a child. It is a fundamental component of what makes us uniquely human.

When a child creates, one witnesses magic.

– Donut Art & Craft Kits
Be a kid – Create something today!

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