The Importance of Art in the Curriculum for Blind and Visually Impaired Children and Young People
Presented on Tuesday 4 March 2008
Creativity
Creativity is the ability to make something original, to imagine things that don't exist and to come up with new ideas.
Creativity is the ability to look at everyday items and events in new ways.
Creativity can make common things special and special things more common!
When you do the same task in different ways you are being creative.
The process of art is more important than the final product.
In allowing children to explore you run the risk that some children will get lost in the art project and may not reach a final outcome. The child may learn more from the exploration of paint colours than from having a 'nice finished product'.
Giving children opportunities to create constantly with current knowledge is the best preparation for future creative action and thinking. The very act of creating can provide new insights and new knowledge for further action. Creativity does not just happen; it is an essential part of the learning process.
In my opinion, showing them (children) how to draw something shuts
off thinking, ruins self-confidence, and stops the creative process?
[Florence Goodenough who developed the Draw-a-Man test in a book entitled
Measurement of Intelligence by Drawings (1926)].
Creative Art
It is a mistake to evaluate children's work by how the product looks,
its colours, shapes, design qualities, etc. In art the aesthetic quality
of the final product is subordinate to the creative process. It is the
child's process - including thinking, feeling, perceiving and reactions
to the environment - that is important. Artistic development cannot be
measured by the same taste and standards that may be important to an
adult.
[Lowenfeld, V & Lambert Brittain W (1982) Creative and Mental Growth, MacMillan
publishing, NY (p7).