Artistic Endeavors as Emotional Development

“I want the children in my school to live each school day within a beautiful environment,” wrote Carol B. Hillman in her lovely book, Teaching Four-Year-Olds: A Personal Journey. “An environment that is not only seen but one that is deeply felt….I did my first master’s thesis on art in a kindergarten classroom…I chronicled a child’s emotional development through his artistic endeavors. Endeavors could be paintings, they could be blocks, they could be dictated stories. Any medium can be a vehicle to foster [emotional] growth.”

With the same sense of understanding that children’s artistic endeavors support their emotional growth, educators Bridgette Towle and Angela Heape, in their beautiful book, Cup: A Vibrant Vessel of Learning and Creativity, describe the close attention they paid to Ira as he began a journey exploring plastic cups. They describe Ira’s early reactions to his experimentations, and how his deep emotional attachment to his work soon caught fire with other children: “Captivated by the growing intensity, we willed Ira on as he slowly and carefully layered one cup on top of another to test how tall he could build a single vertical tower. As the stakes of the build increased, so did the tension in the air. Suddenly, taut energy erupted into expressions of joy or frustration as Ira danced from foot to foot to celebrate a successful addition, or stamped in protest at the cups’ collapse.”

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