The Art Teacher
Adapted from an article in “Explorations with Young Children”
by Leah Levinger and Ann-Marie Mott

A caregiver or teacher of art needs to be actively involved in planning supporting, assessing, and following through with appropriate art experiences over the course of the year. The teacher or caregiver role is critical in establishing and maintaining an art program that truly reflects children’s artistic expressions about their world.

In general, the teacher or caregiver

• serves as a facilitator, making materials available in a setting where the children can work undisturbed, and motivating them to experiment and to discover
• offers affirmation and encouragement
• gives recognition by exhibiting some of each child’s work in the educational setting, clearly identified with the child’s name and date
• saves at least some of each child’s work in order to have a portfolio of continuous samples of his or her artwork over the school year

Because growth is not smooth and predictable, your role as caregiver or teacher of art includes recognizing where each child “is” in terms of physical, emotional, and intellectual development, and plan and set forth art materials and experiences accordingly. When to motivate a child to move into a new phase of development and when to allow him or her to consolidate experience with repeated and similar activities is a never-ending challenge.

In one first grade class, three youngsters seem “stuck.” Polly is mourning a lost kitten and draws nothing else. Carlos is unhappy in a cold urban environment and paints bright, lush trees and beaches, like the islands from which he emigrated. While it may take months for Polly and Carlos to work through these losses, their teacher respects their needs and gives them time.

The third “stuck” child, Bernice, endlessly makes monotonous, impersonal hearts and rainbows. The teacher intervenes, encouraging Bernice to take risks and make something new. “What colors are you going to put on your paper today?” she asks. “Will you make a design, or a person, or an animal, or something else?” Bernice starts making a rainbow again. The teacher says, “Yesterday you made a rainbow with lots of colors. Let’s think of other ways of putting colors on the paper,” while pointing to other areas of the paper. It may take several months for Bernice to have enough self-confidence to give up the stereotyped rainbow and express her own ideas, but today she does add a few squiggly lines at the bottom of the page. When she says that she is through, the teacher comments, “You’re holding the brush so firmly, and you’ve thought of other kinds of lines today.”