Inviting meaningful conversations through art Experiences Lana Ristovic - Charles Sturt University Student March 22, 2013

A Hundred Languages They tell the child: that work and play The child is made of one hundred. The child has a hundred languages a hundred hands a hundred thoughts a hundred ways of thinking of playing, of speaking.   A hundred. Always a hundred ways of listening of marveling, of loving a hundred joys for singing and understanding a hundred worlds to discover to invent to dream. The child has a hundred languages (and a hundred hundred hundred more) but they steal ninety-nine. The school and the culture separate the head from the body. They tell the child: to think without hands to do without head to listen and not to speak to understand without joy to love and to marvel only at Easter and at Christmas.   to discover the world already there and of the hundred they steal ninety-nine. They tell the child: that work and play reality and fantasy science and imagination sky and earth reason and dream are things that do not belong together.   And thus they tell the child that the hundred is not there. The child says: No way. The hundred is there. (Loris Malaguzzi in Edwards, Gandini & Forman, 1998, p. 3)

Position: Over the past two semesters, I have come to recognize art as a significant form of communication for children. It has led me to believe that when children are offered the tools they need along with provocation and encouragement, we are invited to experience the world through their eyes. It allows us to scaffold their learning, and allows us to understand how they make sense of their world in ways meaningful for them. This process provokes us to generate new questions to extend that learning. I have learned that these art experiences are not always limited to a creative task, but can be extended into other strands of learning as well. The experiences I have had at Waterdown and Ryerson OYECs have helped me to develop a stronger pedagogy in how I can engage the children in meaningful conversations so that we can construct knowledge together.

Why Focus on Meaningful Conversations? Take a look at the documentation from last semester as well as from this semester I have noticed that no matter what the children are provided with, the material can be meaningful to them because it is their creation This is why the focus has shifted from meaningful materials, to meaningful conversations

Rights of the Child: United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, under Articles 12, 13, 28 and 31 state that “State Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child” (Covell & Howe, 2001, p. 168) “The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art or through any other media of the child’s choice” (Covell & Howe, 2001, p. 168) “State Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity” (Covell & Howe, 2001, p. 174). “State Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreation activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts” (Covell & Howe, 2001, p. 176)

References Covell, K. & Howe, R. B. (2001). The challenge of children’s rights for Canada. Wilfred Laurier University Press: Waterloo, ON. Edwards, C., Gandini, L. & Foreman, G. (1998). The hundred languages of children. (2nd Ed). Ablex Publishing Corporation: London, UK.