And on the sixth day of sickness my daughter said to me... We have been colouring ...
... in unicorns. She is pretty good at staying within the lines and I think I have helped her be patient enough to spend time filling in the white space, but I am hoping that we can do some more free drawing.
I remember as a kid wanting colouring in books, but my parents didn't get me any. Instead, if I wanted to colour in, I had to draw something first. Looking back, I am glad it was this way as I believe it adds to skill development and creativit from scratch, rather than providing the foundation and framework to work from.
By my estimation, far too much of a child's life is provided with far easier barriers to overcome. While more inclusive in some ways, it doesn't encourage brilliance in development and creates the expectation that something should always be provided. On top of that, I think that it creates entitlement of results that weren't necessarily earned and fails to provide the progression needed to develop.
When drawing as a kid I would compare my work to that of my dad's, a master painter and felt inadequate. However, I also saw how a painting developed from a few rough marks into a work of art hundreds of hours later over the space of months.
I think too much of the background work is hidden away from kids, the practice and training, the mistakes and failures in order to produce something of quality. Instead, we are surrounded by curated and cherry-picked content that fills our senses with possibility, but not the journey to get there. Not only does it discourage us from attempting, it keeps us entertained instead of trying for ourselves.
All of these things add up over time and I think that it culminates in people who will only invest short-term into skills that are easy to acquire and therefore, not overly valuable. Sitting in front of a screen consuming the productions of others is easy - anyone can do it.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
Tracing and colouring in helps hand eye coordination which can help with drawing. It’s sometimes a necessary stepping stone or workaround depending on how the individual in question works. Like you obviously had good hand eye coordination from young but I can’t draw to this day 🤣
Who is hiding all this background with away from kids? What am I missing?
It is part of the skill but it can't be the only focus of course. I think because a kid will want a "pretty picture" as the outcome, they are more likely to rely on the frame given.
Don't know, but I think that most of us are consumers who do not have many practical skills. Not long ago, in order to have something, we would see at least some of the process to have it. These days we don't know where the food comes from, the gadgets come from, the apps come from, the clothes come from... we have been stepped away from the background, and that means fewer of us are likely to develop the skills necessary. In general, to have something valuable one has to produce something - this is different for banks, but most of us aren't banks.
In my experience a kid enjoys the process of colouring. I guess some would care about the end result but mine rarely did XD
Yep I think so. I know for sure I don't have many practical skills x_x and even then I'm often surprised by the complete lack of what I would consider extremely basic life skills (I have a lot to say about this and some of it is not pleasant XD).
I saw adults doing those "adult colouring in books" for relaxation or meditation. I get the idea, but the problem is that they are still concerned about the result.
Basic life skills are sorely missing in many people these days. The worst thing is that they are now adults raising children yet still struggle to look after their core needs.
That’s adults not kids 🙃
Yes. I just wonder what those adults now did as kids then.
Some people just seem more content with how their lives are. I nurture and encourage the hell out of all my kids as best I can (and occasionally casually shove them off the comfort zone cliff XD) and we do what we do but when compared to a friends' kids they look wilfully and sinfully lazy.
Although it may also be entirely possible that those people were scheduled down to the last second as kids so perhaps they're now enjoying their adult colouring books and doing the absolute bare minimum.
Broken at the foundations...
The over-planning and tightly scheduled may look promising in childhood, but it can have dire consequences for them as adults.
Couldn't agree more. I see it with my own kids. The younger ones envy the talent of the eldest; not recognising that he's been passionately and consistently drawing for years.
Without the transparency of the journey, it all seems "god-given" and unfair.
We do tend to take away challenges in the hopes that it will help our children succeed. The coloring analogy is a metaphor for so much more!
I think so, especially these days. I get the sense from other parents that they think removing obstacles for their children creates strength.