The child as an artist in the 21st century. Considerations.

The Reggio Emilia Educational Approach has been working passionately over the decades to allow a new vision of children’s immense reservoir of thought patterns, processes and abilities. Believing that there are a multitude of ways, “The Hundred Languages of Children” (Vecchi, 2010.), in which they express their thoughts and creating a safe and stimulating environment for these languages to blossom and thrive, the Reggio Emilia approach has allowed a new and updated vision of the child. No longer is the child seen as a passive individual that needs to be forged and instructed but he/she has grown to become an active, knowledgeable, creative and dynamic individual demonstrating, that deep rooted inside each one of us there lies an ancestral bank of wisdom that is passed on through what Carl Jung describes as participation mystique. (van den Berk, 2012).

It is quite surprising how children often leave adults dumbstruck. Whether by producing a piece of artwork or by sharing ideas and thoughts the adult is often left with the question of how did he/she come up with such insights. Carl Jung studied the primordial experience that lies inside and he called it the creative force. (van der Berk, 2012) The common drive of creation that digs deep inside us and unfurls as it is triggered. The Reggio Emilia Approach stimulates this process as the children share common abilities, ideas and theories in what Pierre Lévy calls the collective intelligence. (Vecchi, 2010)

Listened to with intent, empathy and respect children prove that they are the reservoirs of our past where evolution has saved our history and knowledge. Expression is the drawing out from a source and through interaction; it is transformed into a visible product. (Dewey, 1934) Encouraged to draw out their wisdom, children as bearers of our future, they hold the same importance as adults in the creation of the latter.

This can happen in what is commonly considered culture in the anthropological sense but it can also refer to the biological meaning of adequate environment where things are grown effectively. (Eisner,2002)

So given the possibility that children carry ancestral wisdom and when given the possibility to grow in a cultural environment, can they be seen differently from the stereotyped notion of infant?

 “Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors.” (Housseini,2014)

Sources

Hosseini, K. (2014). The kite runner. [London]: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Van den Berk, T. and Galama, P. (2012). Jung on art. Hove [England]: Routledge.

Vecchi, V. (2010). Art and creativity in Reggio Emilia : exploring the role and potential of ateliers in early childhood education.