Expert: MaryAnn F. Kohl - 11/14/2008

Question
Hi my name is Amber and I work at a pre-school working with two years olds. And well in school I learned that even art supplies should be reachable to children. Meaning if and when ever they wanted to draw they would be able to with asking a teacher for help. Well at the school were I work at we are not able to. Any way I was told if I could come up with the research about why free ar5t is good and as well as the right way to do it I can have in my class art supplies at their little reach pleases help me out.

Answer
"Research shows that children who draw without adult interference do better in other subjects like science and math." ~ Rhoda Kellogg, from her book, "The Psychology of Children's Art"

I don't have time to "research all the research." But if you do some quick Google searches, you'll find some articles on the importance of creativity. Also, NAEYC, the National Assoc for the Education of Young Children has standards about what is developmentally appropriate for young children, and independent creative art is just that.

Even if free art is not possible, the art table can have art materials set up that can be used freely, just a selection of art materials, like for example, cotton balls, glue, and paper plates. The kids can use these freely to create a collage. You see, this way, the collage is somewhat contained, and yet, the outcome is completely open ended.

Art is a process, not a product, so if kids are copying adult made samples, they are not using the right side of the brain to create. They are using the left side of the brain to imitate. Art uses the right side of the brain. Crafts tend to use the left side of the brain.

I just had surgery a few days ago, and so am not able to spend the time on your answer as you might need. Sorry...I'm pretty worn out from answering just this short reply!! But if you do some Google searches, you will find plenty of ideas.

Best wishes for caring about children's creative minds,
MaryAnn Kohl
www.brightring.com


More:
FOUR From Arts Education Partnership:    www.aep-arts.org/
Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development
This Compendium summarizes and discusses 62 research studies that examine the effects of arts learning on students' social and academic skills. The research studies cover each of the art forms and have been widely used to help make the case that learning in the arts is academic, basic, and comprehen ...

Making a Case for the Arts: How and Why the Arts are Critical to Student Achievement and Better Schools
This brochure describes the benefits of arts education based on new research published by the Arts Education Partnership. It can be used for many advocacy purposes. ...

Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning
This report compiles seven major studies that provide new evidence of enhanced learning and achievement when students are involved in a variety of arts experiences. Cost: $10.00 plus shipping ...

Third Space: When Learning Matters
Third Space tells the riveting story of the profound changes in the lives of kids, teachers, and parents in ten economically disadvantaged communities across the country that place their bets on the arts as a way to create great schools. The schools become caring communities where kids - many of who ...

Another--
http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/learning/k_6/arts/kids_potential.php
Developing children's full potential: Why the arts are important

Dr Neryl Jeanneret
Faculty of Education Univeristy of Newcastle

There are many reasons why the arts are an important factor in the development of children’s full potential. This article presents just a few of these reasons, drawing information from the literature that abounds on this subject.

The arts are a central force in human existence and everyone should have sufficient and equal opportunities to experience and continue to participate in the arts throughout their lives. Education is about creating equity of opportunity to enable children to realise their potential, and equity of opportunity is about access. To deny access to the arts is to deny access, as Reimer (1989) states, to "a basic way that humans know themselves and their world; they (the arts) are a basic mode of cognition" (p 11). Fowler* (1994) takes this idea a little further by stating,

The arts are one of the main ways that humans define who they are. They often express a sense of community and ethnicity. Because the arts convey the spirit of the people who created them, they can help young people to acquire inter- and intra- cultural understanding. The arts are not just multi-cultural, they are transcultural; they invite cross-cultural communication. They teach openness towards those who are different from us. By putting us in touch with our own and other people's feelings, the arts teach one of the great civilizing capacities – how to be empathetic. To the extent that the arts teach empathy, they develop our capacity for compassion and humaneness.
and more