How Children See Art; How They See Themselves As Artists Tara Rousseau Visual Art Teacher, OISE/UT
PERSONAL INTRODUCTION I have been the art teacher at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study Laboratory School at the University of Toronto since July 2009. Prior to this, I briefly taught French at the Institute, and I came to Toronto by way of Seoul, South Korea, where I spent seven years teaching English as a second language to learners of all ages, the majority of whom were kindergarten- and elementary-aged children.
MY CHALLENGE No matter the discipline being studied, children’s self-image is always delicate and vulnerable. I have found this truth to be at its most profound when it applies to children’s self-evaluation of their worth in the creative pursuits in general, and, specific to my role as a teacher, in the visual arts. There remains a stubborn misconception among students that skills are not improvable in this realm – you either have them or you don’t. Indeed, many adults I speak to about this issue are equally intractable, if not more so. My
anecdotal experience has shown me that a student’s confidence can be damaged at any age, and that he or she can very easily abandon the growth mindset as it relates to skills in the visual arts, dismissing the discipline as solely related to “talent.” By ages 8 to 10, however, this becomes more widespread, as peer relationships take centre stage and relative comparisons are the norm rather than the exception. Students at this age seem much less likely to become absorbed in their art to the point where they are immune to unfavourable comparisons with the artwork of their