I suport Katrinka's view entirely. The tyranny of representational drawing
depresses many young children's abilitities to draw what they know as well
as what they 'see'. This pressure, compounded by the tendency for early
years practitioners to give feedback on the emergent literacy, rather than
drawing, potential of their early meaning making in line, results in many
children electing to be 'not able to draw' from an early age. They rarely
escape from this constraint unless they meet an unusual primary school
teacher who can teach them to draw by building on their strengths and
helping them to overcome their (real or imagined) weaknesses.
At 12:54 08/05/02 +0000, you wrote:
>>From: George Whale <[log in to unmask]>
>>Reply-To: The UK drawing research network mailing list
>><[log in to unmask]>
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Sound common sense
>>Date: Wed, 8 May 2002 10:23:45 +0100
>>
>>Dear All
>>
>>I came across the following in Mona Brookes' book, 'Drawing with Children'
>>(1996, Tarcher/Puttnam):
>>
>>'We don't expect children to play the piano, study dance, or learn a sport
>>without showing them the basic components of these subjects. Why do we
>>expect them to understand the complexities of drawing on their own? Imagine
>>expecting children to write creative stories without teaching them the
>>alphabet and the structure of language. Learning the language of drawing
>>and painting is likewise essential for anyone wanting to pursue those arts
>>creatively.'
>>
>>The idea that children (and art students, for that matter) should be given
>>explicit teaching in observational drawing seems to me like sound common
>>sense. But I'd be interested to know whether anybody on the list disagrees.
>>
>>George Whale.
>
>
>Dear George,
>
>I certainly do agree that to be able to draw a person needs to be taught how
>to draw. Learning to draw really doesn't differ in principal to learning
>anything else, and as with other types of learning the sooner its starts the
>better.
>Children are taught to read and write in disernable stages which build their
>knowledge to the point (theoreticaly) where they are fully literate and
>then people are in charge of their own literacy skills and may develop them
>or not . I think drawing could have also have a distinct place in primary
>education. Although it is not a core skill in the way that literacy is,
>drawing is central enough within education to merit the teaching of it.
>However, I think I would suggest that the objectives and systems of
>observational drawing may not translate verbatium to a primary school
>curriculum as younger children are very comfortable with symbols but don't
>seem to want to make literal images as much as older people.
>Teaching people how to draw does seem like common sense to me too, I'm not
>convinced that this would mean starting with observational drawing.
>
>Katrinka
>>
>>
>>http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ac/ad/htmlpages/staff/gwhale.html
>>
>>George Whale
>>Research Associate
>>Loughborough University School of Art & Design (LUSAD)
>>Loughborough
>>Leicestershire
>>LE11 3TU
>>UK
>>
>>Tel: +44 (0)1509 228967
>>Mobile: 07944 751088
>>Fax: +44 (0)1509 228902
>
>
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