Article Link: http://stage.exchangepress.com/article/learning-to-see-yourself-as-an-artist/5017553/
When was the last time your curiosity was sparked by a blank canvas? When was the last time you stood at an easel, center stage, in a room full of your peers, dipped a brush into a jar of thick red paint, and created one bold stroke after another on a sheet of crisp white paper?Most of us don’t remember. Some of us deny we ever did. Many of us would say, “We might have once, but that was before we understood that we weren’t real artists.” Too many of us believe that the only people who can present art to children, beyond cutouts and stencils, are those who call themselves artists. But there is no denying that we were children who put the strength of our whole being into a creative process. We were artists then and we are artists now.
It is essential for early childhood educators to remember that as children we held the same confidence as of the young artists in our classrooms. When we remember that we once thought ourselves as artists, we will believe in our own capability to think through a creative process.
So often adults ask children to behave in ways that ...