Art cannot be learnt, because it is an instinct that all people possess. It exhibits itself in interesting mannerisms. Some people sing, some paint, some play the bassoon. A lot of people grow up thinking they are not meant to be artists, and instead reroute their passions to other fields. The issue is, however, that art is a seriously effective tool in honing an individual’s creative capacity.
In a global market where the only narratives that succeed are those of ‘the USPs’ and the ‘original works’, being invested in your artistic half is a saving grace. If at an early age, children are subjected to the drudgery of pedantic syllabi and bland pedagogy, they are not very likely to succeed in their upcoming years. In this situation, encouraging children to express their creative and original sides, if not a human necessity, at least is an economic one.
It is important that a child enjoy the few years they have free of stakes, to fully explore every manner of expression. Any form of guidance, approval or disapproval, places an element of second party consent in the process of creativity, which may incline the child to conform. So, the best thing to do for a child is to let them be and indulge in their artistic and creative processes.
There is a sound rationale behind encouraging children to indulge in their artistic halves.
Art Makes Children Happy
The purest and simplest reason of all is that art makes children happy. Happiness releases endorphins in the brain, so does art. This is healthy for children. Children naturally seek out endorphins and develop several subliminal methods for producing the hormone. They may crack dumb jokes, watch television, keep snacking on chocolate, look for social situations where they might exert a form of creativity: such as play around with the power dynamic within a set of children, simply because of their natural urge to evoke an endorphin high. There are several avenues that parents can add to their journey to seek this high, like sports, art, and worldly curiosity. However, the category with the most effective results is art.
Art is Inciting Creativity
Drawing involves a variety of shapes, colours and drawing tools. Dancing invariably involves music, costumes and role playing, evoking a keen multivariate focus factor in children. Musical instruments, the magical toys from which melodies swim out are often, undeniably pleasurable to all kids.
Allowing children to engage in pedagogically vacuous activities helps them learn to approach activities with mentally engaged and fearless minds. The additional aspect of fun makes children want to repeat the process, increasing their neuroplasticity and learnability. They get addicted to the process and pleasure of learning and choosing for themselves.
In contrast to the subjects taught in school, art has no clear guidelines or thinking patterns or areas of focus. This encourages children to be more creative and pay avid attention to the contents of their imagination. It breeds a habit of contemplation and reflection.
Art Improves Self-Confidence
In the process of engaging in any artistic endeavour, a child undergoes the process of taking the effort and courage to articulate their thoughts and emotions. With repetition, expression of one’s own individuality becomes second nature to children. When art moves from the expression stage to the performance stage, a child undergoes the process of the first gaze, the existence of the ‘other’, the ‘audience’, the critic. Given that in expressing art without performing it already, a child already learns a certain degree of courage, this stage is only getting better. It is a process in which children learn to defend, not merely their answers in an exam but their own thoughts and their own ideas on a public platform. This trains a child to be independent and open minded, and repeated exposure to critique helps the child learn to engage with the outside world while understanding themselves simultaneously.
Children will Have More Ability to Problem Solving
Producing artwork means starting something from scratch. When a child embarks on an artistic endeavour, they set themselves the immense task of giving birth to an impetus, and then following it through to its climax. It is a difficult process and it helps sometimes to have a loving figure to nudge the child to persist through ‘the artists block’. Often, children start and artistic project and then stop midway. This could breed a habit of doing incomplete work. To gently help the child remember what they love doing can go a long way. That means that children learn to solve their own problems. It is important to offer children a trial class, so that the child does not feel “instructed” into a creative process. A child must choose to be creative of their own accord. Another way to excite children would be to expose them to intriguing ideas on the internet, get them excited about a certain form of art.
Children Learn Quicker at School because of a Psychology of Persevering Creativity
Children who study the arts must go through a long process to improve their abilities. The only way one can fully experience the truest essence of art is to learn the patience of persistent practice. Art prepares children to fail multiple times and each time, approach things in a different and creative manner. Art conditions children to endure through long hours of very small returns on great amounts of effort. Art braces children to face embarrassment with grace, and critique with solutions as opposed to the defenceless zeroes on test answer sheets.
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