Childhood Preconceptions

The biggest preconception I hold about children is the range of their ability. I have a hard time recognizing what a child can and cannot do and a lot of time I find myself underestimating their abilities. This misconception of children has now been discarded since reading Sylvia Kind's article about children's art entitled, Windows to a Child's World: Perspectives on Children's Art Making. The previous notion of underestimating a child's capability would affect my teaching in ways that would be disadvantageous to the child since the work provided would most likely be not challenging enough. The problem with this is that children would easily be bored and different skills, not only involved in making art, but in all aspects of learning would be left undeveloped. Sylvia Kind described an art-making environment where a teacher needs to be aware of a child's intention and encourage their creative ideas. i realize as a teacher, I need to be conscious of every child's individual ability and recognize how each child learns. I need to understand "what art making means to [each child]" (Grauer, K. & Irwin, R.L., 16).