15 Apr We don’t make mistakes: Teaching children resilience
A lesson from art class
I have always loved the quote from Bob Ross,
We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.
It is a phrase that we tell our students frequently in class.
That there are no mistakes in art just different ways of working.
It is especially important for students that over think or are overly critical of their artwork.
Creative thinking
We aren’t just teaching art, we are teaching our students to think creatively too.
And a large part of this is being ok with experimentation, being ok with the result not always being what you expect it to be.
Understanding that sometimes the value of the lesson is in the process, not the finished artwork.
This is a lesson that has value not just for our art students, but for parents too.
Resilience is a skill
Another important skill we really work on with our students is building resilience.
What I mean by this is, a resilience to criticism.
Building self belief in their own skills, helping them to find confidence in their artistic ability.
By teaching creative thinking and an ability to be happy with the plan not always going the way you thought it would, this helps build the foundation for resilience.
Building the foundations
And some of this confidence also comes through practicing those foundational art skills.
By giving our students the skills and knowledge of colour mixing, perspective, composition.
Each of these is a building block, a foundational skill that they can build their art career on.
Language around art
Some of it comes from the language we use to teach too. How we talk to our students about their art.
We tend to not use the words good or bad.
We look more at how they have taken the lesson and learnt from it.
How they have used what we are teaching in their art.
How they have made it their own.
There are no mistakes, just happy little accidents.
I think we could all learn from this
Happy Sunday
Vanessa
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