The Magic of Learning is in the Process
Let's face it, there will be moments when our creativity and imagination abandon us, and we are left with nothing but a blank mind. Working in the field of early childhood education, where being able to quickly think of interesting ideas is often necessary, there are certainly moments as an educator where it can feel like there is no longer anything around that one can draw inspiration from, for a new idea... or so I thought.
Feeling dry in the creativity department, I browsed through one of my favorite social accounts which features various artworks from different artists. While browsing, thoughts of "How on earth can kids be able to do that?", "This artwork is too beautiful to be recreated by kids" etc. came to mind. Then it suddenly dawned on me that these are the types of thoughts that rob children of the opportunity to display and use their prior knowledge and skills, on how they ought to recreate an artwork.
As an educator, giving more focus to the outcome rather than the process of creating can be discouraging. Having this kind of mindset hinders creative and innovative thinking. How to make a seemingly impossible task, become an avenue, for children to create meaningful learning discoveries and experiences, regardless of the outcome, is where our thinking should be.
True enough, taking away this kind of mindset opened my eyes to the beauty and magic that only witnessing children's surprising capabilities can provide. I used Wassily Kadinsky's "Squares and Concentric Circles" as inspiration for one of my art classes and boy, was I blown away. The ideas and conversations that started buzzing around while the children were busy recreating this art, were inspiring. It was interesting to see the many different points of view they had on how to recreate the artwork. The difference in how children chose to recreate the artwork could be seen in how some children preferred to use rulers to create the squares, while others thought of just folding the paper into equal parts. Also, the process of recreating the artwork paved the way for some problem-solving skills, as we had to come up with ideas to make each of the squares look "full" just by drawing bigger circles.
Needless to say, the children’s recreated work on Wassily Kadinsky's “Squares and Concentric Circles” went way beyond my expectations. My realization was that the process of recreating it, was so substantial and loaded with innovative ideas from the children, that I personally think what they recreated, is worth a thousand times more than the original artwork.
Ultimately, the take home for me from this experience as an educator, was to present an idea, take a step back, trust in the capabilities of children more and witness the magic.
Written by Erika Que (Buds Class Teacher, October 2019)
