Creativity in the Classroom Pt 2

One of the things that I have noticed about myself throughout this art journaling journey is that I am uncovering more questions than answers about art and education because I am starting to challenge some of the assumptions I came into this course with.

I initially dismissed a lot of what Sir Ken Robinson said in his TED lecture as unsubstantiated hyperbole but now I can see how even certain sections of my journal make his point for him. In my last entry on mistake making, I inadvertently demonstrated bias by using the examples of a doctor and an engineer. This suggests that I too privilege traditional academic ways of knowing.

This revelation was more than an exercise in humility, it actually frightened me. I acknowledge that children have different intelligences and preferred modalities. I also am a firm believer that teaching literacy goes far beyond the traditional 3 Rs approach. I strongly agree with the statement that “Artistic knowing and communicating involves a non-verbal, expressive literacy - a special type of literacy that is every bit as important as the mainstream concept of literacy so prominent today.” (Wright, 2003, pg. 15)

So why are my actions so inconsistent with my beliefs? How can I address this hypocrisy before entering the classroom?

As a result of this crisis of faith in my own thinking, I started to over-analyze every assumption I had about teaching and in particular questioned every aspect of delivering quality arts education. I even started to wonder, if you can believe it, whether crayons killed creativity!

Crayons are such a permeant fixture in early education classrooms and I would argue (without any reliable data or statistics mind you) that they are the most commonly used arts medium amongst children. Art educators scorn colouring in books for inhibiting creativity and self-expression (McArdle, 2003, pg 36). Maybe the problem goes much deeper. The boilerplate books are the symptom but the crayons are the disease.

In an article entitled ’32 Traits of Creative People’ for The Creativity Portal, Dr. Robert Allen Black uses the term ‘Crayon Breaker’ to describe creative people. Why does Dr. Black use this analogy: Is it because crayons represent oppression and conformity?

I started to investigate whether crayons were a help or a hinderance to creativity. I started by creating my own landscape drawing of Deception Bay from memory using a box of 8 ‘Original Colour’ crayons.

I was frustrated by the lack of choice and the difficulty that crayons present in mixing colours but found that these challenges only meant that I had to use more creativity to create the effects I wanted in my drawing. I had to find new ways of using line, shading and texture.

One thing that I learned from this exercise was from analyzing a mistake I made in trying to represent distance by fading the blue water. Although colour gradually fades in distance with land, it’s not the same with bodies of water because typically the farther you get, the deeper the water, resulting in a darker shade of blue.

So my experiment with crayons proved that they can facilitate the artistic process. I had to problem solve and make aesthetic decisions. Also by critically analyzing the work I was able to learn something new.

One of my favourite movies is an Australian film called The Castle. One of the running jokes throughout the story is that the main character is overly complimentary of his wife’s cooking. After every meal he is bursting with accolades asking her, “What do you call this?” She humbly replies, “Ice cream”. He marvels, “Yeah, but it’s what you do with it!”

The same can be said for the provision of arts materials in the classroom. “Children should be engaged in not just ‘busy’ work but activities that have real meaning for them and are connected with their lives and their interests.” (McArdle, 2003pg. 43) If crayons are used primarily to facilitate pointless colouring-in busy work types of exercises then they may kill creativity.

When used appropriately, crayons can compel creativity. “Young children apply expressive components in art when they use swirling lines, texture, colour and composition to express a felling, which may not necessarily depict a specific object, person or event.” (Wright, 2003, pg 18)

All of this can be accomplished with even one single coloured crayon as demonstrated in the iconic children’s book Harold and the Purple Coloured Crayon.

In this story, the title character Harold draws himself an adventure using a single crayon. This story is a great example of how children make and manipulate symbols to make meaning. It can also be used as a great primary arts teaching tool for a basic lesson on lines or even a more advanced lesson on one point dimensionality.

Of interest, Picasso did not consider himself above crayons and used them to create this self portrait.