ArtBreak. Katherine Ziff
Formally the frameworks are known as child-centered education, the expressive therapies continuum (ETC), and Bruce Tuckman’s developmental stages of group counseling.
CHILD-CENTERED EDUCATION
Child-centered education is associated with many contemporary descriptors of teaching and learning—including those that are active, collaborative, inquiry-based, and problem-based—many of which are related to the structure of lessons and classrooms. I find it helpful to go to the work of Carl Rogers and his person-centered theory of counseling and psychotherapy. A psychologist by training, at the end of his career Rogers began to apply his humanistic theory to teaching and concluded in Freedom to Learn that “The only learning which significantly influences behavior is self-discovered, self-appropriated learning.” This dynamic, which transfers power from the teacher to the student, is what informs student, or child-centered, education.
Is there evidence that a person-centered environment is effective? Yes. In counseling and psychology we have known for decades about the importance of the relationship between client and therapist in creating positive outcomes in therapy. In education, as early as the 1960s, social psychologists were documenting the dimensions of a positive classroom climate and its role in supporting student learning. In recent years professional associations like the American Psychological Association through its initiative, The Other 3 Rs Model for Student Learning, elaborated by Rena Faye Subotnik and Robert J. Sternberg in Optimizing Student Success in School with the Other Three Rs: Reasoning, Resilience, and Responsibility; and the American School Counselor Association have re-affirmed the importance of social/emotional education in schools. Research studies have linked many aspects of social and emotional learning with gains in academic competence and found that arts programming with positive outcomes for children and young people are ones that attend to the social/emotional environment.
Carl Rogers emphasized the interpersonal relationship between teacher (referred to as the facilitator of learning) and students. He outlined three necessary qualities of a facilitator of learning: (1) realness; (2) prizing the learner; and (3) empathic understanding. Table 2.1 pairs these qualities with suggestions for ArtBreak.
Realness
Realness, or genuineness, is being transparent in one’s feelings in a matter-of-fact way. In ArtBreak I am being real when I take time to be aware of my own feelings and try to express them in a constructive way.
Table 2.1. Qualities of a Child-Centered ArtBreak Facilitator
Reference: Carl R. Rogers, Freedom to Learn (Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill Publishing, 1969).
Example: When children in an ArtBreak group, carried away in their enthusiasm for finishing their work, simply could not stop in time to clean up and ended up leaving paint, cardboard, tools, and lots of other materials strewn about the studio, I was dismayed and exasperated at having to spend forty minutes tidying up the room. Indignant, I photographed the studio in its disarray. My first thoughts were of revenge: “I will close the cardboard section next week, and probably the paint section too!” After some reflection, I came to the thought that the students were actually excited to be in the studio again after weeks of snow days and had also probably forgotten about our routines. For our next session I sat down with the children at a table, showed them the photographs on my phone, and explained that it took me a lot of time to tidy up and was therefore not able to finish some of my other work that day. I asked them what we could do to make sure we clean up together and within our time limits. The children suggested they would pay more attention if I paired my cleanup announcement with dimming the lights. We proceeded with the session, and I was pleasantly surprised at the rush to clean up at the end that left the studio clean enough for me to get on with the rest of the day.
Prizing the Learner
Prizing the learner involves what Rogers calls a non-possessive caring, a belief that the child is fundamentally trustworthy.
Example: I keep in a file drawer two “teacher tools” for cardboard work: an awl and a craft knife, usually an Olfa utility blade. Both are quite strong and sharp. I am careful to keep them in my pocket and not leave them about. One morning I could not find the awl and, because the group included a couple of boys considered “behavioral problems,” I found myself wondering and worrying if one of the two had pocketed the tool. Unable to find it, I finally spoke and said that I could not find the awl. One of the “behavioral problems” stood up, looked around, and pointed to my desk—“It’s over there.” Exactly where I had left it. I felt abashed to have suspected the children and resolved to trust them and be more mindful of my own actions.
Rogers writes of having trust in the constructive tendency of both individual and group. He explains “Students who are in real contact with problems that are relevant to them wish to learn, want to grow, seek to discover, endeavor to master, desire to create, move toward self-discipline. The teacher is attempting to develop a quality of climate in the classroom and a quality of personal relationship with students that will permit these natural tendencies to come to their fruition.” (See Carl R. Rogers, The Carl Rogers Reader, 313.) I try to model and show by my words, actions, placement of objects, and care and use of materials what is valued: that the children’s work is important, worthy of both my time and their care. Even when a child destroys his work there is an opportunity to acknowledge his feelings and process. A six-year-old became frustrated with her project, a police uniform—in her words, “a cop suit”—as it was not turning out with the authenticity and authority that she had hoped for. She suddenly and dramatically tore it up, stomped on it, and stuffed it in the trash can. The other children turned straight to me for my reaction. My first impulse was to cry, “No!” but I managed to stop myself and remarked to the group, “Making art can be frustrating sometimes,” then sat down to talk with the child to help us both understand her frustration.
Prizing also involves encouraging and valuing the choices and opinions of the child, accepting choices as givens and trusting that a child will try and discover. I have yet to see a child who, with encouragement, does not rise to the opportunity to choose his or her own work in ArtBreak. When we give attention and respect to a child’s decisions and choices she learns that her work is important.
Giving quiet attention as an observer and helper confirms the importance of a child’s decisions, so that the choice of this red feather or that orange one, the search for just the right button or bead, a found length of silver cord or blue lace, the choice of whether to build or paint, all become a matter of thoughtful contemplation.
When we give time and attention to a child’s decisions and choices, he learns that his work is important. This child is deciding where the facilitator should cut his cardboard. Photo by Josh Birnbaum
Our questions and statements (both directive and reflective) show that we take a child’s choices and intentions seriously and that we are offering choice and control.
“You would like to paint today? Would you like to paint with your hands or with a brush?”
“Draw a line where you would like me to cut the cardboard for you.”
“OK, so you are needing something to make the brain for your robot.”
Children understand their ability to choose their work in ArtBreak and will occasionally correct well-meaning adults who give a casually directive remark. During one of our summer programs a seven-year-old told her parent on arrival, “I’m going to finger-paint again.” Her parent remarked, “Oh, you’ll probably be doing something different this time.” “No,” said the child. “We get to do whatever we want to do.” If a child seems stumped about what to make and asks for help with a remark like, “I don’t know what to make today,” a helpful prompt could be, “What have you been thinking about making?” or “Is there something you have seen that you would like to try?”