Having spent that last three days in the company of a six-year-old I have emerged with a new respect for art teachers in schools. Knowing that he is fond of artistic activities we had planned several opportunities for him to engage with that kind of thing. The first involved drawing (with pastels) and we both did pieces based on one of his favourite walks close to his home. He did a summer scene, and I did a winter scene. Then there was modelling with clay, for which he chose a fox. Today’s project was mono-printing.
It all went very well, and we both had a good time, but in the process I have certainly come to respect teachers of art in schools. For a start, my energies and attention were fully engaged with only one student. Heaven only knows how I would have coped with thirty of them! I suppose that an experienced teacher would begin with the knowledge of what kids of that age are capable of, both physically and intellectually. I had to modify my expectations as I went along. What is the normal span of attention of a child of six? Once again, I had to make adjustments in my expectations. It is certainly appropriate to lend a hand now and then, but exactly how does one judge the line between leaving a child to get on with it and taking too much responsibility for a task? Can learning by mistakes become a positive learning experience and when does it become simply discouraging? How does one negotiate the situation in which a child wants to take on a task that you know in advance might be too complicated, without squashing initiative? And so on …. and so on ….
I know that “trial and error” is a recognised learning strategy, and that is what I have been doing. An experienced school teacher will have faced all of those questions in training, and more in the early years of teaching. I wonder who learned more over the past three days …. my grandson or me? We both had a god time, but, my word, I take my hat off to school teachers!