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Since I posted “Speaking eyes” few days ago, I recalled a dialogue I had with my student when I was student teaching....
After teaching about color, shape, line, and design for an art class, kids went out for recess. One student was still drawing something as I was cleaning up.
“Miss M. Come and see this!”
“Whatchu got?”
“Look. It's smiling.”
There was a simple smiley face drawn by a pencil. : )
“I see, it's smiling.”
Then he erased the mouth and drew in a flipped arc. : (
“Now it's a frown.”
“Right.”
As I was thinking, “That's no trick.”
Then he said to me,
“Although these are the same eyes,
they look sad when you change the mouth.”
“ ! ! ! ”
Just two dots on a piece of paper. Seeing the difference of emotion there... That's pretty amazing sensitivity of the child.
Recently, we were asked to share “Aha! Moment” in our teaching experiences for one of the classes. I knew this was the episode. After sharing, the professor said, “It is like the Little Prince seeing the sheep in the box.” So true. He said too, “What is essential is invisible to the eye.” This experience taught me it would be arrogant for me to teach art or to draw if I forget seeing the invisible. I also realized we should not stuff children’s mind so much that they lose such sensitivity. Have we traded our innocence for the game rules to live is this world? I lost the ability to see the joy in : ) and sadness in : ( until my student reminded me that day. They had become mere symbols. Yet, drawn eyes also speaks....