Madison’s new class
I signed Madison up for a toddler art class figuring it would be a chance for her to get really messy and I wouldn’t have to clean anything up. Her first session was today and I think she mostly enjoyed it. We left early because her attention span ran out but I think we’ll get our money’s worth.
It’s insane, really, to have an art class for toddlers. I just let her smoosh stuff around but there are always parents who really want to end up with a piece of artwork worthy of display. This makes me crazy. While I was listening to parents correct their children (as if mastery is the thing we want our toddlers to get out of it) I was thinking of one of the very first essays I ever sold (twice — it sold as a reprint too). I’m putting it below the cut.
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I remember a few years back when my then three-year old son and I went to the library one morning for the weekly preschool arts and crafts activity. The project was to make soda-bottle piggybanks. First Miss Megan, one of three perky children’s librarians, read a book about a little girl and her “mean piggybank.” Then we gathered around tables and the two other perky librarians passed out the supplies. The children squirmed in miniature chairs and their loving adults hovered behind them. Miss Megan showed us an example of the finished pig and smilingly said, “Feel free to change the project to suit you!” The kids happily got down to work. Unfortunately, their caregivers couldn’t help themselves from breaking in to critique what they were doing with their bottles, their felt, and their curly pink pipe cleaners.
“No, no, honey, that’s not how a piggy’s eyes look. You need to glue them over here.”
“Sweetie, let mommy do that; you’re crushing the tail.”
“Honestly Carrie, do you really think a pig has an ear on his back?”
Suddenly the kids weren’t doing the project at all; the grown-ups had taken over. Moms and nannies swooped in to straighten drooping tails, mop up dripping glue or ask the librarian if they could exchange mismatching button eyes chosen by their child for two nice blue ones. What’s the deal? Aren’t these projects for the kids?
My praise got louder as I tried to drown-out the criticism flying around us.
“Wow, Noah, I see you’re being very careful to put those ears right where you want them.”
A mom next to me glanced over at Noah’s limping pig and smirked before turning to her son to tell him that he was wasting paste.
The tension in the room increased as bored preschoolers whined to do it their way and their frustrated parents tried to teach them to do it “right.” One usually patient mother threw her hands up in despair because her daughter wanted to play with the buttons instead of gluing them on properly. Finally she went and got a second set of supplies from the librarian so she could make the piggybank herself.
“See, Karen?” she cooed to her daughter. “See how mommy’s making a little piggy for you?” Then she turned to the rest of us at the table. “Honestly, all she wants to do is play with the stuff!”
So what’s wrong with that? Kids learn by doing and – most importantly – by doing things their way. Even when that means doing something entirely different than what they’re “supposed” to. It’s not like rocket science where getting things exactly right really matters, right? So what harm is there in an end result that looks like something Dali dreamed up? Who cares if the ears point up or down or end up on what was supposed to be the chin? Or even if the pig never gets made all? Arts and crafts are all about the process. You can’t learn how things work unless you explore them thoroughly. So pipe cleaners get squashed, and pigs end up with three eyes. And just about every child will use too much glue if given the chance; let them. Or pour the amount of glue you can stand to lose out into a paper plate, hand the kids some paint brushes and tell them when it’s gone, it’s gone. They’ll figure it out eventually.
When we step in and take over, we deprive our children of the chance to say proudly, “I made it all by myself!” When we take the paintbrush out of their hands, we’re telling them that they aren’t capable, that their efforts aren’t good enough. We can’t expect kids to grow up to be creative adults when we don’t allow them to make things on their own terms.
Listen, I know that it’s hard to watch a child make a mess or waste supplies. And I know it’s tempting to straighten a crooked line or “show” a child how to do a technique by doing it for them. But we parents are used to doing hard stuff. If we can handle the terrible two’s, sleep deprivation, and tantrums then we’ve already proven that we have the patience to watch our children make a crooked pig.
Someday in the far-off future, as we sift through a put-away box of preschool masterpieces, we’ll be glad that we left our children alone to be their own artists. Every scribbled picture will remind us of the chubby hands that made them. Trust me. And then you’ll know that their very imperfection is what makes them so darn perfect.
I love this! And it is so so true. At my school (and the mark of a good preschool in my mind) we never do this kind of “cookie-cutter” project.
Children need to explore the materials in an age-appropriate manner for years before ever making something representational.
It’s the art teacher’s job to teach the parents what’s appropriate and what’s not. And then let the kids explore and get messy.
Longtime reader, first comment– this is great, and I agree completely. I really ought to print this out for the next time I feel compelled to “correct” my stepdaughter’s lovely handiwork.
Oh, Dawn, I almost wrote about this last summer, and now I’m glad I skipped it, because it would never have been so perfectly concise.
There were crafts at the lake resort where we vacationed, and EVERY SINGLE FRICKIN DAY, the parents would take over the crafts. So all of them have these perfectly painted flip-flop photo frames or tie-dye shirts that look like real tie-dye, but the KIDS DIDN’T MAKE THEM. And it DROVE ME CRAZY. How hard should it be to just SIT ON YOUR HANDS?
Apparently: really, REALLY hard.
Sorry to sound all upset but this continues to DRIVE ME CRAZY. Do you want the actual CRAFT? Because hello, it’s a two-buck t-shirt with some cheap tie-dye on it. You really think the finished product is going to be THAT much better if you do it your way instead of your five-year old? ARGH. And a pop-bottle pig: I mean, really, that’s somethat that so demands accuracy that you’re going to fiddle with the tail YOURSELF?
I just don’t get this one. AT ALL.
Ahem. Off to listen to some Secret Garden and calm down a little.
great essay.
we’re all about process at our house — especially with art. i’ve got some good books, with good ideas — mary ann kohl is a favorite. she has a book called ‘preschool art — it’s the process, not the product’
if you google her, you can see other books, and some ideas for projects online.
If thru the generations we all thought and did things within the box, we wouldn’t have invented the wheel; pyramids would never have graced the deserts of Egypt and Cookie Dough ice cream would never have been the choice of depressed women everywhere!
I let X color outside the lines and if he wants the grass to be blue and the sky to be green, so be it. It IS the process, but I LOVE the product. It’s fun to see the progression of their talents.
Yes! Lady, if you want a perfect piggy, sit down and make one your own self!
We make lots of messy art projects here and at the girls’ school, and I love it all.
Excellent post, Dawn, and terrific essay. Thanks for sharing it here. Your perspective on this validates my position on letting my toddler (younger than Madison) choose how to play for himself, unlike some moms I know who feel the need to sing songs, read books, and engage in play with their children 100% of the time, to the point of being bored because their child wants to engage in age-appropriate play.
What a perfect way to teach children to hate arts and crafts. And to doubt their own abilities and imaginations. Great post/essay.
There are always little crafts at the library after storytime. Last week, the kids (all under 3) were supposed to make panda bears by gluing black circles on a paper plate. Kelsye is 2 and just starting to learn how to really use a glue stick and had fun sticking black dots every which where on the plate, as the other kids’ parents made perfect little pandas.
The thing is, I never considered *saving* these projects, I always just deposit them in the trash receptacle on the way out the door; it’s the process that counts, not the product. But your comment about “remembering the chubby little hands that made them” nearly brought a tear to my eye. I suppose I’ll have to start taking pictures of Kelsye’s masterpieces.