Each student brings their own unique visual perspective to the act of making art. The capacity of the individual to enjoy their artmaking experiences and to develop techniques and skills which advance their ability are related to many variables. One of the most significant factors is the amount of encouragement and support children are given by their teachers. If it is clear to the students that their artwork is valued, it makes it easier for them to value their own art and to pursue the development of their skills at increasingly more advanced and meaningful levels.

From Kindergarten to Year Twelve at SOTE, children are supported as artmakers through the enthusiasm and interest of their teachers and are encouraged to explore visual language in a number of ways. As self-expression, artmaking can often assist students to articulate their feelings and responses to personal and external stimulus in a more complete/meaningful/dynamic manner than through verbal communication.

At primary level the integration of art with other subjects such as English, Maths, Science, and History in a multi disciplinary learning situation provides an environment in which children can use art as another form of communication with broad and useful application. Pursued “just for fun”, artmaking gives students enormous scope for enriching physical, social and emotional well-being.

As many adults are aware, the lack of appropriate support and encouragement can very rapidly diminish or demolish confidence and interest in personal artmaking. Many parents and teachers will have stopped artmaking because they received unhelpful criticism or no encouragement during their childhood. Some of our students can still periodically feel that their work is receiving insufficient interest or support. They may compare their work critically with the work of others — particularly their peers. They may receive comments which undermine their perspectives on their own work or they may feel frustrated at the lack of improvement in their work. They may also just become periodically bored with the work they are doing.

The opportunity for correcting these difficulties is much enhanced at SOTE by the class sizes and again, by the immense value placed on the importance of the individual and their uniqueness. It is also evident that the continued stimulation offered throughout primary levels for children to explore new ideas, to increase skills and to value their own and others work, results in generally very positive approaches to artmaking at secondary level. The idea is not so much to create an artist of every child (or musician or writer or dramatist), but to ensure that each child feels capable of valuing the artist that exists within them, that the possibilities are open should they wish to pursue the development of their artistic abilities in the present or in the future.

The importance of art as a process informs the approach that the students take to much of their artmaking at SOTE. While the “finished product” to be hung on the wall or placed on a plinth is obviously very pleasing to the artmaker and to the viewer, one finished painting does not define the student’s ability. The active engagement of thought, reasoning, problem solving and the refinement of technical skills are all processes which are ongoing and often provide superior evidence of the student’s development than the finished work.

Assisting students to understand that artmaking is an ongoing and constantly developmental process is most important in helping them to view their work with a reasonable degree of objectivity. If the students worry too much about the result of their work, they can unwittingly inhibit their artmaking. If they have expectations for their finished work and their artwork falls short of these expectations, students can sometimes undermine their actual achievements with unnecessarily critical thought. The fear to “fail” can overtake the desire to explore and create.

Altering the emphasis from the result to the process can provide a more useful and ultimately satisfactory result for the students. Everyone has the capacity for creative and imaginative expression.

How we view the world, how we are affected by experiences and how we wish to express our responses can be shaped by many factors. It is the role of the art teacher to ensure that, if the child chooses art as part of their expressive “language”, every opportunity is provided to encourage, support and develop artmaking skills and to ensure that each individual has the opportunity to discover and refine their unique talents.

		Anne Walters was one of the original teachers when the School of Total Education opened in 1977. More recently she has been the senior art teacher at the School and is an inspirational and encouraging teacher of the visual arts. She has recently completed her Masters thesis on Creativity in Children.

This article was originally published in the August 2000 edition of the SOTE Newsletter. (Published on web site: September 2001)

Copyright The School of Total Education 2001. This page last generated Thu, 7 Mar 2002. Web site by The Design Group.