Let’s Nurture ART throughout Life ! - By Shamika Khatawkar

Every Child is an Artist. The problem is staying one when you group up!

We all are blessed to stay on this beautiful planet. Every second, on this magnificent planet, a life is conceived; and at every other, a new life is born. As these seconds pass by, these new born lives; grow, develop and they start witnessing what we call ‘Life’. 

These newly born, are then given the prettiest names by their creators ‘their parents’ and they begin their journey of: exploration, creation, invention and experimentation. As they grow, each parent invests enormous efforts in their upbringing and ensures that the little one gets the best of everything. These tiny tots then learn to speak a language. They learn to converse and express their random thoughts, feelings and emotions to the best of their ability. They begin their schooling; where they learn the fundamentals of every subject: vocabulary, numbers, science or even Art for that matter. 

Initial years of schooling for most children are super fun, as there is a greater emphasis on imparting education in a holistic and fun way. Learning is colorful in all terms, it is more visual, auditory and kin aesthetic in nature. Children get several opportunities to express their creative and Artistic edge. They acquire, observe and grasp things with ease; and are open to commit mistakes.

It is in these years, that kids develop a very strong bond with Art.Further, the school environment and family members also facilitate the bond by providing encouragement to these young minds; so that they experience the different shades of Art while learning at school or elsewhere. Hence, we can see children explore the domain of Art through drawing, painting, sculpting, clay work, play or even dance and music for that matter.

While at home, the walls of the rooms become nothing but large canvases to draw and scribble. Newspapers become more useful for making airplanes, paper boats and origami, than for reading. Used bottles, card boards, buttons and tins become raw material for most school projects. Life for them becomes truly experiential in all terms. It revolves around actually creating things and learning from them.

As kids grow, keeping Art alive is no longer the focus as it was before. The reason being, other subjects are given more importance by the school and parents. Kids often hear every one saying, “Now other subjects such as math, science and computers should be your priority; as these subjects are going define your future; so you better focus only on them”.

This situation is further worsened when the teaching methodology becomes more academic and children have to learn everything the ‘Rote Way’. An element of experiential learning is now, nowhere even close to existence.  As kids climb the  grade ladder, from 7^th to 8^th, 8^th to 9^th and so on,rote learning becomes  even more dominant at every grade;and there comes a time,

when these kids are no longer in touch with the Art which lived in them before. These kids have simply forgotten the strong bond they shared with Art! They have forgotten that Art was something which made their life so colorful and learning so much fun. Unfortunately, this is a personal loss for these kids and that too unknowingly!

So, who is to be held responsible for this loss? Who is to be blamed for this separation of kids from Art?

Is it the educational system? The parents? Or the kids themselves?