Maulfrey,
Thanks for that. I'm sure that Ring and Anning are correct when they say,
"The role of drawing in children's learning is frequently misunderstood".
Performance tables lead most schools nowdays and anything that cannot easily
be seen to contribute will be viewed with suspicion. However I think that
teachers share some of the same traits as the general public in being easily
intimidated around the issue of drawing and its interpretation.
The promoting of Learning Styles, with its emphasis on the Visual, Auditory
and Kinesthetic
processes has at least put the idea of using specifically visual techniques
on the agenda
for teachers. see:-
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/learning/styles.html#together
I think that although the overall emphasis of this is about "learning", it
still provides
a bit of a platform for positive and creative things to happen.
Cheers Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: The UK drawing research network mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
[log in to unmask]
Sent: 27 July 2005 10:38
To: Bob Claytor
Subject: Re: Drawing as Language.
Bob - interested in your observation of your son. There is a lot of
evidence emerging that it is the social-cultural effects of schooling (and
specifically the emphasis on correctly formed letters for writing and the
marginalisation of drawing - that reduces children's inclination to draw.
See for instance Anning and Ring's recent book, 'Making sense of Children's
Drawings'(2004) and Kathy Ring's article on this on the Tracey website:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ac/tracey/narr/ring.html.
There is also a concern that drawing should not be seen only as valuable in
terms of its role in supporting early writing. The Harvard Project Zero
identified a 'trough' in children's drawing between the ages of 8 and 11
years (see Davis in Kindler 'Child development in Art (1997).
My own view is that drawing, writing and mathematicals mark-making
(graphics) are all related but that drawing is also a distinctive genre. I
consider that it should be valued in its own right: the school curriculum
is currently biased towards numeracy and literacy, at the expense of the
arts as we know.
I wonder if we might say that drawing is the 'mother' of all other
graphical and symbolic systems?
Maulfry
Original Message:
-----------------
From: Bob Claytor [log in to unmask]
Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 22:12:08 +0100
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Drawing as Language.
My 7yr old son has slowed down his drawing activity dramatically in the last
year, since
learning to write confidently and read books for his own pleasure. His
sister who is 15 months
younger than him and who cannot quite put everything together as coherently
yet, is still
in the middle of a crescendo of drawing activity and so i wait to see what
will happen. Asking
7yr old James if he thought that he had stopped drawing as much and why, his
reply (having said
"yes" to the first question) was, "Books and that". I think that he does
not now have the room for
his current form of drawing activity alongside the allure of reading books
and writing stories for himself.
I see the first years of drawing activity as more of a bridge between
"pre-linguistic"
activity (such as mother to child eye contact), and a clear and focussed
stepover into
the "real" use of language in the form of writing words and sentences,
rather than
Graham's "protolanguage". A "developmental bridge" if you like.
Clearly there is more to the act of drawing at this stage than just this
linking
process, and more than just one developmental strand between the two
(debatable) stages i have
highlighted, but I do like the idea of this necessary activity filling this
gap.
I baulk at the term "protolanguage" because i like to think of drawing as
competing on
equal terms rather than being seen as the first stage of something finer. I
do think that as an
artist and draughtsman, a large proportion of my visual art harks back to
some fundemental process
of recognition laid down during my own early childhood drawing experience.
As such it is not
"protolanguage". Rather it can hold the "prototypes" of the drawings that i
have done since.
I don't really have a neat take on the "pre-linguistic" overlap with very
early chidhood drawing
except to say that "They just love it don't they!":-)
-----Original Message-----
From: The UK drawing research network mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
[log in to unmask]
Sent: 26 July 2005 16:15
To: Bob Claytor
Subject: Re: Drawing as Language.
Interesting question Mike!
Research has shown that infants' early marks / scribbling arises from
gesture, speech (sounds) and body language. Making marks can firs be seen
when very young children (1 - 2 years) first notice that parts of their
body such as their feet or hands, leave a mark or trace of a movement on or
in some sort of surface where there is medium that can be altered (such as
spilt milk or custard). At first such marks are accidental but once noticed
by the child, may be intentionally repeated. Gradually they develop to
chosen marks in which the child explores actions and the range of marks
develops over time. John Matthews refers to these as 'generational
structures': his proposed that these early marks form the basis of all
subsequesnt drawings.
I would recommend that you look at books by John Matthews - 'The art of
Childhood and adolescence' in which he researched the drawings and painting
development of his own three children, from the time they were babies until
their late teens.
Whilst I do not know of any research that has studied children in societies
that do not use paper or write and draw, it would seem likely that this
association with making accidental marks, noticing them and then making
marks by choice (with for example water, mud and charcoal) is universal.
Maulfry
Original Message:
-----------------
From: Graham A. Brown [log in to unmask]
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 08:16:01 -0700
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Drawing as Language.
Hi All
I am in the process of looking at Drawing as a Language for a
documentary and at this stage I do see drawing as a language a
protolanguage.
I do have a question, do all children go through the scribbling and
drawing stage or is this restricted to societies that have access to
paper?
Thanks
Graham A Brown, AOCA
Executive Producer
netcoMedia Interactive
Vancouver BC
Canada V6g 1L9
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