The Learning Process

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Art subject can be fun and interesting but more often than not, parents and students don’t see it that way. For example Ethan brought home his latest art project last week. It is a texture and color art work. His teacher gave him a piece of paper with a printing of a robot on it. He is required to find surfaces with textures, place the paper on it and color; making prints on the robot along the way.

What happened was, he sat there looking at the robot and requested the father to find for him things with textures so he can complete his work quickly. The father without thinking much went ahead to source for textured items. I was feeding Ayden when that happened. I quickly stopped both of them.

I told Ethan we can’t rush art. It’s not the end result that matters the most but the process of achieving that final piece. For this project, it is very important for Ethan to go around the house to touch and feel everything and then decide if the surface is textured enough for this artwork. He argued that it will take him the entire evening to complete his work if we do not help him. I told him so be it. Continue the next day if he must but it’s important he does this himself.

He eventually agreed and started going around the house, touching each and every single thing he came across.

He discovered that the walls in the house is smooth and won’t be of any use for his art while the ones outside has rough surfaces. He quickly colored his robot on it.

He went around the house looking for more textured surfaces and realised that the handle on his bicycle has a textured surface.

He told me he never notice the handle has textures on it. 

The more he went on, the more excited he got. It was already 11pm but he was only 3/4 into his artwork. I had to go to bed with Ayden so I told him to stop and continue the next day but he refused as he was extremely excited to complete his robot. I went up, leaving him downstairs with the father.

The next morning, Ethan excitedly woke me up to show me his masterpiece.

He explained each and every part of the robot; telling me every single details on where he traced them from. His eyes glitter when he spoke of his robot. It might not be the nicest robot around but what is important is the effort put into it. 

In our busy lives, we might not see the importance of the subject of art. I know many parents complain when their kids bring home lots of coloring activities from school. What they do not know is, these activities help improve their kids’ motor skills, train their fingers and more. We are so caught up to excel academically that we fail to see the beauty of art. 

I am an artistic person. To me, art weighs more than academic excellence because through art, we learn to see and appreciate the things around us differently.