People who didn’t learn to read and write lack self-esteem. The same holds true for those who lack the ability to express themselves with drawing, but it is easier to slip by. Just as there are effective ways to teach reading and writing there are effective ways to teach drawing, but few generalist teachers know anything about them. Unfortunately, I’ve seen many third graders get frustrated about their inability while their teachers are helpless to know what to do. Most of what I see being done in the name of art by classroom generalists isn’t art at all. It is simply making things while using art materials. The teachers are merely acting as supply persons. It is a kind of child labor. The children are taught to follow directions in order to produce. They are asked to do but not to see.
In my opinion, it is conceptualization skills should be taught instead.
