practice Ana Angélica Albano reflects on the importance of art as a language and how good artistic education uncovers and mainiains it. Transforming reality The river that ran behind our house was the image of a glass snake that curved behind the house. Later, a man passed by and said: This curve that the river makes behind your house is called a bow. It was no longer the image of a glass snake that curved behind the house. It was a bow I think the name impoverishes the image. Manoel de Barros The language of art Being invited to give many lectures and workshops for teachers of young children has led me to focus on the concepts that these educators have about childhood and art and on the Possibility of transforming the approach to learning by including poetry in art education. This arose from my conviction that artists and poets have much to say to those who work with the youngest children. They restore to education what the child has not yet lost: the ability to imagine glass snakes making curves behind the house... ‘The approach taken by the teacher is far more important than the material resources. What determines the practice of the teacher is his or her “personal aesthetic’, which has to do not only with what the teacher likes or ‘appreciates or thinks of as beautiful, but with the very way he or she does things. Each movement, gesture and decision is intrinsically connected to the aesthetic of each person, which, like a fingerprint, leaves its unique mark on everything it touches. However, unlike a fingerprint, which is permanent, a personal aesthetic can be enhanced through education. When they take an art course, teachers often want tips that will help them to plan their activities; they treat their school as if it was a place for consumption of recipes, and not for the creation of knowledge. The first step, therefore, Is to get them to-understand that art is a language, a form of ‘communication that says what words cannot say. The lines, colours, shapes and textures are an alphabet, one of the first that the child uses to communicate. We can even say that it is its first writing, because every child draws: the stick in the sand, the stone on the earth, the inky brush on the paper - the playing child leaves his mark, creating games and telling stories. However, when they grow, most children say they do not know how to draw; a language that is so natural in infancy atrophies. Is this an inevitable part of development? By giving little attention to their own aesthetic education, teachers simply accept that drawing is something that is lost, or else is reserved only for those who have a gift. They also believe that art is always an expensive activity, a luxury not a necessity. Following the poem by Manoel de Barros, we can ask ourselves: do the melting glass snakes, when replaced by bows, take with them part of the world of the imagination? 20 © Children in Scotland, Issue 14, 2008,education An artistic education is not about mere trensmission of information, nor does it rely on a gift. It requires knowledge, suitable planning and coherence. It needs to be an everyday exercise, not confined to special days or to when there is spare time. It requires attention to each child's level of intellectual and emotional development, to propose an appropriate activity. In my workshops, teachers comment that, throughout their previous education, they have had few opportunities to express their ideas with visual language. They realise the need for a wide variety of experiences with different materials and techniques. They understand, however, that a technique is only a means, never an end in itself. ‘The youthful curiosity in making marks comes from the need to exercise the ability to learn things, to express discoveries and to tell stories. Far more than materials and techniques, children need significant experiences. Not just a wide variety of experiences, not just always something new, but a coherent sequence of activities, presented in a way that allows children to deepen their understanding and build significant knowledge. The richness of the images expressed in drawings and paintings depends on both the quantity and quality of the experiences to which children have been exposed, as well as the atmosphere of trust and sharing provided by the teacher during the activities. A visit to the park, a story or a dream can lead to a series of related activities. On a walk, children can observe the colours, textures, sounds and smells of the world around them, and collect specimens. Taken back to the classroom, this material can allow the deepening of sensory experience, the exchange of observations, and the creation of different (or symbolic) narratives. Later, the children can build on their discoveries by researching in books, reading poems, telling stories and watching films. The drawings and paintings that result from this process will reveal the richness of the experiences they went through. Activities that explore the outside world, like visiting a park, are as important as those that explore the inner world of children, such as talking about a dream, remembering a special event, a poem, or a favourite story. The teacher must be aware of and listen closely to the differing perspectives and desires of the children. It doesn’t matter whether the drawings are beautiful or not; what matters is that they are meaningful, that they translate the dimensions and colour of the dream of the child that created them. The drawing, as the poetry, will then be the result of a particular way of looking at things. It requires a willingness to submit to the experience, because the magic of art is that “it shows that reality can be transformed, dominated and become a thing to play wit Ana Angélica Albano is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil Semi ntinha Pr Project ichool under the mango tree provides for young children outside the formal education system. In 2001, the project was introduced to Santo Andre, an industrial district of Sao Paulo, where 2000 children, aged four to six, were not at school. Activities included creative workshops and “traveling stories suitcases", suitcases filled with children’s books. But the most J discovery among all the activities was the creation of small art studios, in which children were able to work autonomously, freely choosing materials and subjects for their work. The educators were fascinated by the wealth of ideas from children. Another surprise was the children’s ability to keep the studios in good condi Instead of guiding the work, the team of educators was transformed into alert observers and collaborators, facilitating the children’s efforts to achieve their own projects. The educators themselves had never experienced such freedom of choice; they were fascinated, but not completely convinced about the children’s potential. The key was trust; trusting the processes of others, their capacity to use materials in a responsible way and give form to the invisible, expressing through images what words could never convey. Our aim has been to encourage children to tell their stories through their drawings, demonstrating that drawing connects them to their inner world of images and stories. As a five- year old girl said: “I like to draw, because when I draw my heart beats”. We could hardly find a better way to describe how the emotion of expressing ideas bridges heart and mind. © Children in Scotland, Issue 14, 2008 21