Preparing for the transition from primary to secondary school

HAVE you ever observed the joy and intense concentration children expressing themselves through markings? Many parents consider this to be art. Thankfully I can safely say that it is NOT art but merely a means of self-expression.  According to Viktor Lowenfeld’s Creative and Mental Growth 1978, children use markings that quickly develop into drawings as a means of expression and exploration of the world around them. This takes place in several stages. These are the scribbling stage, pre-schematic stage, schematic stage, gang age and the stage of reasoning. It is from the stage of reasoning where art is taught. Anything that was created before then would not be considered art. In today’s column, I will explain these stages as to means of helping both parents and students to understand the transition process of art as a recreation versus art education.

Creative and Mental Growth
The scribbling stage occurs between 18months – four years. This is when a child simply starts to gain control of the muscles in the hand, wrist and arm. They tend to use circular movements, interspersed with lines as a means of collaborating their mind and body; challenging their perception, memory and coordination of hand and eye movement. The pre-schematic stage is when the child makes representational attempts. This happens between four-seven years and the use of colour is more emotional than logical.

The drawings will show that the child perceives the most important part of the subject. Over time this will improve as the child perception skills increases. Between the ages of seven to nine, children go through the schematic stage where form concepts are achieved. The concept of space, the relationship between objects and colours reflected as they appear in nature. In this stage shapes and objects are easily definable. The gang age, 9-11, years is when children attempt realistic drawings. It is a period of self-awareness to the point of being extremely self-critical. Drawings display an awareness of perspective and leave little to no room for subject-object interpretation. The pseudo-naturalistic stage is the stage of reasoning. From 11-13 years the product becomes more important to the child. Marked by two psychological difference; visual and non-visual. Visual: the child’s artwork has the appearance of looking at a stage presentation. The work is inspired by visual stimuli. On the other hand, nonvisual: the child’s artwork is based on subjective interpretations emphasising emotional relationships to the external world as it relates to them. These are the stages of creative and mental growth.

Art Education
Based on the aforementioned information it would be safe to conclude that from toddlerhood to the tween stage of a child’s development art is merely used to express oneself. Without specific guidelines, children are given materials and in some cases a topic in which they create art using their imagination. At this point, art is fun. It is not being taught as a subject but merely treated as a recreational activity. Over the summer vacation, many children attend classes where art is done for recreation. However, this is not the same mindset they should have about the subject once they enter the secondary school system. When a child enters the secondary school system art takes an entirely new form. Visual art becomes a subject. Unlike other taught subjects whereby students are accustomed to its learning processes, visual arts teachers face a greater challenge in changing student’s perception of the subject. When art education takes place students learn the elements, principles, history and the various expressive forms used in visual art. So, as students prepare for their new academic journey in secondary education both parents and students should be mindful that visual art is no longer a recreational activity. Rather, it is the subject that involves theory and practical work. It is important to approach art with an open mind and be ready to learn and grow. I believe if persons are aware of the difference between recreational art and educational art prior to entering secondary school the transition process would be made easier.