100 Things Number 7: Creativity and Kids
Creativity and Kids
What is your earliest memory of actively making something and knowing that you were making it? Mine was of a morning at kindergarten, making an entire farm out of modeling clay. In my memory it covered the whole table: I had made "roads" and "cars" and "barns" and "animals". When the teacher told me we had to clear it away to make room for snack time, I was at first upset-- until she told me I could do it again, and maybe better! By the time I had finished my graham crackers and juice I was already full of ideas for improvements.
The youngest children have a very blurry line between what they imagine they are doing and what they are actually doing. But somewhere along the line they begin to grasp the concept of "pretend": that pot of tap water is not really tea, the invisible cakes and cookies will not be eaten, and the Teddy bear and the doll are not actually eating or making conversation.
And yet it is at this point that "pretend" becomes more elaborate, and turns into little stories or playlets. And as children learn more motor skills and learn to manipulate materials, they grasp that they can actually help mommy bake real cookies, and even if the Teddy bear can't eat them, they can pretend it's so-- combining the real and the imagined.
Children are very good at filling in the holes left between pretend and real, and at figuring out unconventional ways of using their materials. When I was very young, a popular pastime in our neighborhood was to rake up pine needles and arrange them on the ground to make "houses". They would be raked into lines that made squares or rectangles, and we would make gaps-- this was a door, this was a window, here's the kitchen, here's the living room...we knew it was pretend, but in our minds we could "see" those houses.
It's when kids get old enough that adults decide they need to learn to do certain things that problems arise. The adult who's doing the teaching must walk a fine line between what a child actually needs to accomplish with her materials and allowing her the freedom to be creative with them.
Because a child will not learn how to draw or write or cook on her own. Someone must teach her how to use the pencil, how to be safe at the stove. And yet we must do it in a way that lets the child know that she can go beyond just doing what she's told and can make something uniquely her own.
I have taught art to children in many different settings. I spent a year and a half teaching art in the public schools where I lived. (I was not the actual teacher-- I was substituting for a position that had not been filled. Then of course, came budget cuts and art was taught no longer.) I taught the Kid's Club program and the Summer Day Camp for several years at a Michael's Arts & Crafts store. I've taught kids projects at Vacation Bible School and at events for the Society for Creative Anachronism. I've had kids sign up to take classes meant for adults, such as calligraphy, polymer clay and knitting. And I have learned a lot about what not to do.
I learned that the more kids there are, the more difficult it is to let them do their thing. One or two or three kids-- I could keep an eye on them to make sure things were safe (only an adult can use the glue gun or the sharp scissors, for example) and not too messy (use a little less glitter there, dear!) but otherwise pretty much let them do their own thing. More than that and it is tempting to do so much prep ahead of time that there's not much for the kids to actually do, simply in order to avoid chaos. But then it is not so fun for them, they finish too quickly and with nothing more to do there is more chaos at the end than at the beginning. So keep groups small or have assistants handy.
I learned that effusive praise and overt criticism can both have a dampening effect on a child's enthusiasm, and it might even make them dislike an activity they would otherwise enjoy. This I learned from observation of parents doing activities with their kids.
I remember a grandmother whose two little granddaughters would come in for Kids Club on Saturdays. Grandma was sure these two little darlings were artistic geniuses, and no matter what thing they made or how it looked, she'd heap praises on them and take pictures of the whole process. I could just see them losing interest the more she went on. Their faces would begin to close off, their eyes would grow bored, and the younger one would just quit, only to be coaxed to "finish it for grandma". They knew darn well that what they made might be cute, but it was far from "beautiful" and the over-enthusiasm turned them off.
And then there was the mom that in my head I called "Nazi Mom". I used to dread her coming in with her child. I'm sure this mom loved her daughter dearly, but she would absolutely take over the project. The child was old enough to know what she wanted (she was about ten)-- I recall a decoupage project in particular. They were to cover a little wooden box with torn tissue and Mod Podge. It was really cute, and hard for any child to mess up. But not according to Nazi Mom. When her daughter started to choose the colors for her box, mom told her they were the wrong colors. Now, really, how could the colors be "wrong"? So mom picked out the colors she thought would "go together well". Then she criticized how her daughter tore the paper-- in fact, she asked for scissors, and made the child cut the tissue into little squares! It was one thing after another-- she did allow her daughter to actually physically do the tasks involved, but not to make any creative choices whatsoever. The end result was a very pretty little box, but you could tell the kid had lost all interest in it-- in fact, she left it there in the classroom. It was the mother who came back and got it. I was seething. I wanted to tell her "If you want one, why don't you pay two bucks and make one for yourself." Of course, I couldn't do that. When that little girl grows up, she's going to have an aversion to making anything!
And then there are the projects. When I was teaching art in the schools, the projects were well thought out to combine teaching children how to use different materials and to develop their motor skills and yet still be able to make creative choices in the matter of colors and subjects and so forth.
But when I worked at Michaels, while many of the projects were like that, others were not planned to boost the child's creativity, but to promote a theme (like at the Day Camp) or as often as not, to promote certain products we sold at the store. I'd say at least half the projects I was sent for Kids Club were planned that way-- and of those, maybe about a third did allow the kid some creative choices. But the rest were flawed.
Some of them took too long for the kid to finish, so that they had to finish them at home; bad idea, because kids aren't wired for delayed gratification. Others used materials that meant the adults had to do most of the steps (glue guns, laminators, two-part epoxy, etc.) so that the child was not involved in the most important steps of the project. And some were geared to such a specific pattern and steps that all the resulting projects were basically identical.
The ideal project for teaching a child a creative process involves two things--first, a chance to teach the child the safe and appropriate way to use the materials involved and how to optimize her results; and second, the chance for her to make her own choices during important steps along the way.
In teaching children to knit, they need to learn how to cast on, how to do a knit stitch and how to cast off when they are finished. But they need to be able to choose their yarn, the color, and to define what they are making-- such as a scarf, a doll's blanket, a potholder, a dishcloth, etc.
There is a ten year old girl in our knitting circle at the library. She is perfectly content to sit there and knit among all the adults. But she has become a very accomplished knitter, and created her own pattern for a simple stuffed cat using nothing more than a knitted rectangle. I have seen her help teach beginners to the group! She enjoys knitting because her mother wisely never dictated to her what she could and could not make. Her younger brother also comes to knit with us sometimes-- he's not as accomplished as his sister, but he also enjoys what he makes. And mom taught both sister and brother, none of this "boys aren't supposed to do that".
Some things do require some rote learning and the practice of more boring exercises in the pursuit of knowing how to do them well. Playing an instrument or learning to write come to mind. But with each lesson should come a chance for the child to actually do something with what she's learned so far.
Some things require more direction and supervision for safety reasons-- cooking and gardening both require the use of tools that could be dangerous. But they are still skills a child can be creative with.
The point is: a child should be guided into learning creative processes, but still be given the chance to use her own imagination and judgment when it comes to the final outcome.