Children’s Art: Childcare and the Home Front 1943-66 is the current exhibit at The Museum of Children’s Art in Oakland. Created over sixty years ago by the children of workers at Kaiser Shipyard, the exhibit’s fifty paintings are on loan from the Richmond Museum of History’s large collection of children’s art. The works at MOCHA are colorful and detailed. It is clear that the artists, age 5-12, carefully planned and thoughtfully executed each brush stroke. The exhibit vividly documents a dramatic historical period and is a testament to a gifted and dedicated educator, Monica Haley. "Monica's philosophy was to give the kids materials and an orderly environment and leave them alone," said the show’s curator, retired UC Berkeley Professor Joe Fischer.
Art was a primary focus of Haley’s program for 2-12 year-olds at Maritime Child Care Center. She carefully prepared the environment, made sure that at least two hours a day were devoted to art and gave the children high quality materials. She and other teachers respectfully recorded the children’s comments about their creations and stored the finished products.
In an article written in the 1950’s Haley stated, “….art education for children should follow the child’s natural way or expressing himself with creative materials…….help the child realize his creative instincts in a tempo and manner geared to his own developmental stages.”
Careful observation of the child as she selects materials, creates representations and discusses her work is the polar opposite of the narrow assessment methods mandated by NCLB. It is rare to find easels in primary grade classrooms and few schools devote two hours a week to art. We are pushing our children to read the printed word without giving them time to read their world and bring coherence to experience. We are, as Ken Robinson says, “educating our children out of their creativity.”
Children deserve schools where creativity and literacy have equal status.
Children deserve schools that are beautiful, filled with art, interesting colors, shapes and textures.
Children deserve teachers like Monica Haley.
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