My aim as an art teacher has always been for students to enjoy the process. Students learn by doing!
- Art is fun. Some artworks are just about learning. Every artwork does not need to be displayed.
- Tapping on a keyboard develops different areas of the brain compared to holding a pen/pencil and writing or drawing. Drawing and writing optimise learning.*
- One of the evolutionary differences of humans was being prehensile and able to hold tools. Our hands are also tools.
- The Visual Arts – drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, design and so on – are (in my opinion) the best subjects for developing synchronistic thinking – exploring broad relationships and links as opposed to linear (cause and effect) thinking.
- The Art world appreciates ‘ideas development’ and good craftsmanship. Showing continuous development is a good thing. It is all about ideas and it is good to convey a message.
- Instead of sitting and trying to work out a problem, try drawing intuitively – the image that comes can be a quicker way of understanding what is going on for you at that time.
- Art is a positive addiction (like surfing). It is therapeutic to have a creative outlet.
- We live in a world full of media images and yet fewer students than ever are taking Visual Arts as a subject.
- Art is a visual language. It improves observation and perception. It is a good skill to be able to read images, and to understand symbolism and what is real and what is photoshopped, made unreal, unobtainable.
- Knowing how to draw, what makes good composition, and how to design are important and useful skills.
- Building on knowledge is exciting. For example, you can combine techniques by going from camera obscura to pinhole camera to film camera to digital camera and Photoshop and back again.
- Some people thought that painting would become obsolete with the arrival of digital cameras. Another said, “Painting is yet to be discovered!”
- Without creativity there is no progress or innovation. Art is a necessary 21st century skill!
*In a study reported on in 2016, cognitive neuropsychologists Audrey van der Meer and Ruud van der Weel from the renowned Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU) found that drawing by hand activates larger networks in the brain than typing on a keyboard. They showed that learning is different when using a pencil/pen, compared to using a keyboard.
When explaining the importance of their results, van der Meer noted that, “This difference in activity is really significant, it tells us that using a pen to take notes means that the brain is able to process learning in a much more effective way.”
The pen is mightier than the keyboard
Words by Janet Hoogwerf
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