As many of you know, I don’t teach projects whether I’m teaching little kids or adults. I like to teach about the artmaking process, and I don’t focus on a product or a project. Many folks have a hard time understanding why I teach this way, so I wrote a little story that I hope shines a little light on my perspective. Sometimes we can illustrate our ideas more clearly through a story than an explanation. I hope that you enjoy the story.
Sami and the Magic Place
Like most five year old children, Sami was brimming with creative confidence. She was an artist, a singer, an actor, a dancer, an explorer, and so much more. She sang along to her favorite animated musicals, and acted out each part. She made mud pies after heavy rains, and mixed in leaves, twigs, and grass as she created her magical concoctions. She played and danced, sang and laughed.
But Sami liked drawing the best where she could create her own worlds and her own characters, and she knew she wanted to be an artist someday when she grew up. She spent countless hours drawing and coloring, as she invented stories of a brave princess who fought dragons and rode unicorns over rainbows. But she didn’t just draw the princess and her adventures, Sami drew all the cats and dogs she would some day have because having a dad who was allergic to pets meant no furry animals in the house, and she drew the houses and castles that she would some day live in. And she drew all sorts of other things — flowers and bumble bees, mermaids and pirate ships, monsters and aliens. Sami was fascinated with the marks that came out of pencils, markers, and crayons that turned into people and animals and anything that she could image.
When Sami turned six, it was almost time for her to go to school. She was so excited that for months, she kept asking her mom and dad when she would get to go. All throughout the hot months of summer she pestered her parents asking several times a day when school would start. She looked forward to going to kindergarten where not only would she meet new friends, but she could share her love of drawing and art. She looked forward to sharing her drawings of the brave princess and her drawings of flowers and cats and pirates and monsters. She just couldn’t wait.
Finally, the day arrived, and Sami went excitedly off to her first day of kindergarten. That afternoon, Sami enthusiastically recounted her first day of school to her mom from the backseat of the car, and then she shared the most exciting news of the day.
“And, Mom, you know what? You know what, Mom?” Sami said quickly unable to hold back the gush of words.
“No. What?” her mother answered back.
“We get to go to art class once a week for the WHOLE YEAR!” Sami said wide-eyed as she clenched her hands near her chin. She was almost overwhelmed by the thought that they would get to go make art each and every week.
Sami was so excited about her first day of art class, that she could think of little else, and the night before her first class, she kept pondering all of the possible things she would make as she went to bed. It took her a little while to fall asleep, but as she drifted into sleep that night, she dreamt of the brave princess and a boat full of pirates as they danced from the tip of a crayon and drifted across a piece of paper.
The next day at school, Sami walked down the hall with the rest of her classmates and stood nervously in the hall outside of Ms. Beth’s room — the art room. Sami could barely contain her excitement, and she marveled at the brightly colored posters as she walked in and saw all manner of the amazing things on the shelves and on the counters. This was truly a magical place, Sami thought.
Sami sat attentively as Ms. Beth explained the rules and procedures of the artroom, and when it came time to make art, Ms. Beth explained that they were going to make flowers. Sami thought to herself, “Great! I love to draw flowers. I know how to draw all kinds of flowers.”
She eagerly took her piece of paper as Ms. Beth passed it out. Sami placed the paper on her table, but she noticed that there were flowers already drawn on it. As she looked around at the papers sitting in front of the other students at her table, she noticed that they already had drawings of flowers on their papers as well. In fact, everyone had the exact same drawing of flowers. Sami’s heart sank a little as she settled back into her seat and screwed up her mouth in disappointment.
Ms. Beth explained that they were going to be coloring in the flowers with crayon and that they were to color in each petal, leaf, and stem carefully trying to stay inside of the lines and to take their time. Sami brightened up as she took some crayons from the box in the middle of the table, and began coloring her flower. She wanted her flowers to be really colorful and different than everyone else’s, so she began coloring her petals with multicolored stripes. She then moved on to coloring her stems bright blue and the leaves flaming orange. She loved how vivid the colors were, but then Ms. Beth came over to the table, and paused next to Sami taking a long look at her paper.
“Now, Sami,” Ms. Beth began, “flowers don’t look like that.”
“I know,” replied Sami. “I wanted my flowers to be really bright, and I love bright colors.”
“Well, you’ll just have to start again,” said the teacher as she took Sami’s multicolored flowers away and gave her a new paper. “The stems and leaves need to be green and the petals can be bright colors but only use one or two colors on them.”
Ms. Beth walked away to another table, and Sami sank into her chair. She reluctantly pulled the new paper with the flowers that she didn’t draw closer to her, and began coloring the leaves and stems green and all of the petals pink.
When Sami’s mom picked her up that day, she noticed that Sami seemed rather quiet knowing how excited she was for her art class when she dropped her off in the morning. Her mom looked at Sami in the rear view mirror and asked, “Sami, how was your day? How was your first art class?”
From her car seat, Sami let out a sigh, and said with very little enthusiasm, “It was ok. We made flowers.”
Sami’s mom, replied, “Well that sounds good. You love to draw and color flowers.”
“Yeah, but we didn’t get to draw them,” Sami told her mother. “We got papers with flowers already drawn on them, and everyone had the same drawing, and when I started coloring mine with stripes on the petals and blue stems and orange leaves, Ms. Beth took my paper and told me I had to color the stems and leaves green and the petals with only one or two colors. Mine looked just like everyone else’s.”
“I really liked my colorful flowers,” Sami added through a pout.
“I’m really sorry to hear that,” said her mom. “You can draw all the flowers you want when we get home, and you can color them anyway that you want.”
Sami’s mood brightened a little, and she looked forward to making flowers her way when she got home.
One week later, Sami was in the hall outside of the art room. She wasn’t as excited as she was just a week ago, but she was hopeful that they would get to draw their own thing this time. Sami quickly found her seat, and Ms. Beth explained how they were going to draw cats this time. When Sami got her paper, she noticed it was blank, and her mood brightened as she thought, “Great! We get to draw our own cat!” Sami picked up her pencil and began drawing.
But then she heard Ms. Beth, say, “Now class just wait. Don’t start drawing yet. We’re going to do this together so that I can show you how to draw a cat.” Sami heard this, and her heart sank a little. She grabbed an eraser and erased the lines and shapes she had already started to draw that were starting to look like a sitting cat.
Ms. Beth stood in the front of the room near the board, and asked for everyone’s attention. She began by drawing a large oval on a piece of paper taped to the board and explained that everyone needed to do the same on their papers. Sami quickly drew her oval just like her teacher’s, and sat waiting as Ms. Beth walked around making sure that everyone had their oval drawn and helping those who were struggling. Sami sat patiently waiting and turning the eraser over and over in her hands. Finally, Ms. Beth walked up to the board and drew a circle for the head, and again explained that everyone needed to do the same. Sami drew her shape just as the teacher did and waited as Ms. Beth checked the other students.
With each new part of the cat, this process was repeated until everyone had a standing cat drawn in the middle of their paper. They had just a few minuted left to start coloring their cats, and though Sami really wanted to make her cat purple, she picked up brown crayon instead and began coloring her cat carefully.
When Sami’s mom picked her up from school that day, she seemed even quieter and more withdrawn then a week before. “Is everything ok, Sami? Didn’t you have a good day in art?”
“We drew cats,” Sami said with her chin in her chest.
“But you love to draw cats,” her mom replied.
“We had to draw the cat the way Ms. Beth drew hers, and I had to erase the one I started because I started to draw a cat sitting down, and Ms. Beth drew one that was standing up.” Sami huffed as she picked at her fingers. “She went step by step and I had to wait while she helped out a lot of the other kids. I could’ve drawn like fifty cats while I waited.”
“Well, you can draw as many cats as you want sitting or standing or running or playing when we get home,” said Sami’s mom in a cheery voice.
“Yeah. I guess so.” said Sami not feeling cheered up or like drawing any cats at all.
And so it went, week after week in Ms. Beth’s art class. Throughout the rest of the year, they did a variety of drawings and paintings, collages and sculptures. And though Sami liked using the different materials, Ms. Beth always told them exactly how to do everything. Though Sami always did her work and did it well, she was never excited to go to art class, and it didn’t seem like a magical place anymore.
The following year, Sami found herself in the hall outside of the art room as a first grader feeling nervous. She wasn’t nervous with excitement. She was nervous that things would be just like they were the previous year, and she was rather apprehensive as she made her way to her seat. The room seemed a bit different as she looked around, and as she sat down and turned her attention to the front of the room, she didn’t see Ms. Beth. Instead, a man introduced himself as Mr. James, and he explained that he was the new art teacher and that Ms. Beth had moved over the summer.
After explaining a few rules, Mr. James passed out paper and explained to the class that they could draw anything that they wanted. He told them that they could use any of the materials as he pointed to a bin in the middle of each table that had pencils, erasers, markers, and crayons. Sami looked at her paper and wearily turned it over but saw that the back was blank as well, and she raised her hand. “You mean we can draw anything that we want — anything at all?” she asked when Mr. James called on her.
“Yes. Anything that you want. You’re the artist and I want to see what you like to make as an artist,” he answered the girl, and told the class that they could begin.
Sami was a bit unsure, but picked up her pencil and tentatively started to draw a picture of the brave princess battling a lion. She kept looking around waiting for Mr. James to come over and to tell her to stop or that she couldn’t draw something or that she had to erase something, but when he did come over to the table, he didn’t tell her to stop. He only asked her to tell her about her drawing. So she told him in a timid voice, “I’m — I’m drawing a princess who is fighting a lion because the lion is trying to hurt people, and the princess is trying to stop it.”
Mr. James looked at her paper as she spoke, and then looked at her and said with a big smile, “Well, that sounds like a wonderful drawing. I can’t wait to see it when you’re all finished with it.”
Sami looked up at Mr. James a bit unsure, and said, “The thing is I don’t know how to draw a lion. I can’t remember what a lion looks like.” She looked down at her paper feeling a little ashamed, and asked, “How do you draw a lion?”
Mr. James stood up straight and rubbed his chin, and said, “You know what. I’m not sure how to draw a lion either. I’ve never really drawn one.”
“Oh!” said Sami a bit disappointed.
“But you know what?” said the teacher. “When I don’t know how to draw something, I like to look at whatever it is that I’m trying to draw. Now I don’t have an actual lion in the room that we can look at, but I do have books with pictures.”
Mr. James led Sami over to a bookshelf and took a book from a shelf labeled “Animals”, and handed it to Sami. She took it back to her seat, and Mr. James helped her look through it until they found several pages with pictures of lions. “Do you think looking at these pictures will help you draw a lion?”
Sami looked over all of the various pictures of lions from different points of view in different poses, and nodded her head as she muttered, “Yes.” She picked up her pencil and began drawing her lion. Sami felt excited as she finished drawing the princess and the lion and started to color it in.
That afternoon from the back seat of the car, Sami hurriedly told her of the new art teacher before her mother could even ask her how art class had been. “And he let us draw anything that we wanted. And I drew the princess fighting a lion, and when I didn’t know how to draw a lion, Mr. James helped me by getting me a book with pictures of lions in it. And I colored it with whatever colors I wanted.”
She bubbled over with creative confidence as she finished telling her mother about being an artist in art class, but she felt a little disappointed that she would have to wait an entire week before she could go back to that magical place where she could make the art that she was excited to make.
