Erin Ronder Neves
As a new mother dedicated to fostering a creative and arts filled environment for my daughter, I consistently attend a variety of art, gym, swimming, etc. classes for her that promise to increase her social, physical and emotional growth. My daughter is 14 months old. That’s right- 14 months old. Who knew that such high expectations would be put on my daughter at such a young age?! A recent experience with a music class has made me wonder if arts programming in particular for the very young (6 months- pre-K) should have less structure and more freedom in order to help a child develop at his/her’s own pace and interest level. After all, aren’t the arts inherently differentiated? The arts let us focus more on process versus product, so is there a need to structure one’s creativity when so young?
When my daughter was 9 months old we joined a music class in our community. I was extremely excited to have her experience music in a new way. The class was five weeks long and met once a week for one hour. The first class was a bit of an introduction to the program, handing out of materials, and then a shortened lesson plan. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed seeing the babies groove, explore the instruments, and laugh together. When we returned for the second class, we were able to experience a complete lesson plan.
My first impression was that the class was geared more toward the adults in the room and how we can teach music to the children, versus being taught themselves in the class. When the teacher started talking about timbre, percussive rhythms and different ways to move around the room with the rhythm and beat of the music (bounce, hop, skip, etc.) it became very clear that the pace and content of the class would not directly benefit my 9 month old at the time. We quickly moved onto the next part of the lesson where the children were set up into “stations.” It was suggested that they spread out so that only one or two children maximum were at each station at a time. Then when the bell dinged they would rotate regardless of if they had just started exploring the items, which then required them to be removed from their hands, or just arrived at the station. At this point, my teacher radar started buzzing, so I paid close attention to the pace, content, and structure of the rest of the lesson and the remaining classes we attended.
Overall, any exposure to the arts is wonderful and I am very glad that my daughter was fortunate enough to have this experience and be a part of this class. However, it really made me question the objective of this class, and subsequently the objective for all early childhood arts education classes. It is important to acknowledge that this class isn’t indicative of all the arts programming available to this young age group, but the rigid structure of this nationally-replicated class – that quickly moved from one thing to another with no transitional lead time, and included over 8 activities per lesson just seemed too overwhelming for me, let alone my 9 month old!
At home, I spend as much time as possible watching my daughter free play. I find it fascinating to see how her brain works and why she chooses to play with certain things at certain times. Her interests and pace are always changing. The materials and content that was shared in this class was wonderful, but I wonder if slowing it down and letting the children explore and interact with the art at his/her own pace would enhance social and emotional growth and be overall more beneficial to retention of the art itself, as well as more developmentally supportive.
A child’s job is to explore the world so that they can make sense of it. In this world of sensory overload, the best way to help them do that is to give them opportunities and time to explore each new thing they encounter. There are several key factors that are very important when teaching a child new things: a good teacher, good materials, good support, etc., but most important of all is time. The need to complete a lesson and check an activity or vocabulary word off the list can be very motivational in the classroom. The arts help challenge that mold and create a web of exploration rather than just a linear trajectory. As I begin my journey with my young daughter, perhaps contrary to society’s need for quantitative data and parent pleasing results, as we view the arts, perhaps less is more for the creative young mind.
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