First week in ARE 440

Week 1

                      This week, I got the opportunity to explore an introduction to children's art. As an aspiring high school art educator, I haven't really given much thought to exploring this type of art but this week changed my mind. I was really interested in further exploring things like meaning and how to critique children's art. I know that there is an ongoing debate about whether or not we should value children's art instead of just throwing it away. I want to explore more information about this topic so I can formulate my own opinion. During discussion, I got to listen to everyone's perspective on the subject but couldn't really agree 100% with anyone for some reason. I will definitely be researching on my own so I can determine what I really think about it. 

                    What caught my attention were the artists' perspective on children's art mentioned in the reading. Picasso stated "When I was the age of these children I could paint like Raphael. It took me many years to learn how to paint like these children." (p.23) To me this stood out from the reading because I believe children are there to teach us important things. The image above is a representation of what an adult can learn from a child's creativity. It should be something more adults need to explore. I think I will be learning more from my students when I first begin teaching. When I get to teach high school, I plan to transmit Picasso's thought on regarding children's art. From a spiritualist point of view, in order to achieve happiness, one must never lose their childhood innocence when socializing and interacting with the world. Being in touch with your inner child should be something you need to always do especially when creating art work. I believe that this way, there will always be that innocent touch to any type of art work you create. It'll be unique and at its purest state.
                     As an educator, I plan to apply what I learned in class in a high school setting. This is my teaching age preference and I have yet to formulate a type of lesson that will recognize my students' inner child. An idea I've been thinking about is: setting up a warm up exercise for them so they can free draw whatever comes to their mind without posing any exceptions. This will give them an opportunity to reflect on their drawings so they can also decide whether they should be considered valuable or not.