I am a graduate student about to complete a graduate diploma in teaching and learning. As a part of my final 10 weeks of this qualification I am researching what support and opportunities are available for children who are gifted in visual arts.
I would greatly appreciate any stories/information/contact details etc about any experiences parents or teachers may have had with their child who is gifted in visual arts.
The questions I would like to answer are things such as:
- What support is available for teachers who have a child who is gifted in visual arts in their class?
- What support is available for parents?
- Are schools offering extension for these children?
- Which schools are doing a fantastic job?
- Are there programs available through schools for outside school hours?
- If there are not programs available through your school where do you go to nurture and extend your child?
These are just a few ideas of the direction I am taking with this research. I am interested in developing a resource website where parents and teachers can go for support.
Extra information about me:
I was a child who was gifted in visual arts, I was lucky enough to have very supportive teachers throughout school who nurtured my talent, however I know that it is not like this for all children. Since leaving school I have completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Whitecliffe College of Art and Design, I am completing my graduate diploma at Canterbury University's College of Education. I am also a private art tutor in my spare moments!
Any information anyone can offer will be much appreciated. Please feel free to email me at gina.thompson@windowslive.com if you do not wish to post something to the forum.
Re: Researching Children Gifted/Talented in Visual Arts
Author: Info for you
Date: 12-02-12 23:30
Hi Gina
The following may not be quite what you are looking for but could be worth consideration:
My daughter was assessed as intellectually gifted at 6 years old and on and off through out primary and intermediate school she was offered entry into a few gifted extension programs.
Art programs were also run by the schools but my left handed also gifted in visual arts daughter was never offered a place in any one of them, even though her creative ability was commented on and used by teachers.
The students chosen for the art programs generally appeared to be students who were not high achievers in other areas. Which suggests that the school tried to share opportunities around as many children as possible. Which is admirable in one sense.
But just as a gifted academic program will fail to provide for those it is set up for if it is dumbed down too far, so to a gifted art program will fail if a set criteria for entry is not established. Preferably one that does not 'exclude' students on the basis that it would not be considered fair to others if they were in more than one gifted program, or 'include' students because they are not great at anything else.
Thank you for your response. This is a great insight into something which I'm sure happens quite often. I can see what you mean and how it may be a problem. In one sense it is great that they offer the program to children who may only be gifted in Visual Arts but it is also not fair that a child who is gifted generally and whose giftedness happens to also include Visual Arts should miss out, they deserve their talent in that area to be nurtured just as much as in their other areas of ability.
I have done some more research into One Day Schools and wonder about the children who are not "generally" gifted but who are rather very talented in Visual Arts, as my guess is that they would not be eligible as they would not pass the initial assessment of being gifted.
Has anyone had this experience? Also I was wondering how often schools actually offer funding for students to enter One Day Schools as I can imagine that for quite a few families it would be outside their budget.
Re: Researching Children Gifted/Talented in Visual Arts
Author: country girl
Date: 13-02-12 21:47
My daughter is gifted and also gifted in visual art. Primary school did very little to extend this and I have to admit I did not persue any extension in this area either, except to provide her with lots of materials. She attended One Day School for several years but I don't remember much being done in the visual art field. She attended a tiny, little country school and they funded 1/2 of ODS after I applied to the Board of Trustees - this was a huge help as $300 a term was easier to find than $600. In fact, I don't think she could have attended if we had had to pay the full price.
I have four boys aged 17, 16, 10 and 5 years. The elder 3 have all been identified as being gifted and the youngest (who is very much like his brothers) is currently going through the assessment process at the moment.
My second boy was a wonderful artist/very creative from an extremely early age. He was shy at school (my only quiet child!) and was never acknowledged at primary school as being particularly gifted in visual arts at all. We think he spent a lot of time doing everything 'exactly' the same as everyone else so he didn't stand out too much.
When he started at ODS in year 3 they recognised his ability and were very supportive and encouraged him to continue and experiment more.
It wasn't until my son left primary school and started intermediate/college that his ability was really commented on in any regular school situation. He has just completed his Cambridge IGCSE art and graphic design exams and has achieved well.
With regards schools helping to fund children attending ODS, the primary school my sons attended never offered (in fact we had a major battle getting the school to agree to our sons attending at all) so we have had to come up with the money for all of them...which can be a struggle!
Re: Researching Children Gifted/Talented in Visual Arts
Author: mumofthree
Date: 16-02-12 21:26
Hi there
I am not sure if this is the kind of info that is interesting to you, but I haven't seen much discussed on here about artistically talented children so am jumping at the chance to join in the thread.
yes, I think the assessments for ODS would not necessarily pick up such gifts as they are much more difficult to quantify.
I have a daughter who I would say is gifted in visual arts. She hasn't been tested or assessed as gifted, and she only achieves pretty average in other areas in school. She is now 7 and has been an artist from age 2. She has always been a prolific and detailed drawer and I didn't realise how much beyond her age her drawing was until she went to kindy. Her pictures were always quirky and individual, not like other people would draw.
I don't know if anyone else finds this but my daughter is a very sensitive and can be rather anxious type personality-she seems to see the world through more detailed eyes or something-just notices and worries about everything! This can make school pretty challenging at times.
At school every teacher she has had has commented on her artistic ability. Our school doesn't provide any special extension, but they do quite a bit of creative stuff, especially in the junior school. They do sessions once a week where materials are provided and the kids just "go for it" and create whatever they wish. My daughter designed clothing out of fabric provided at these "fun' sessions, when she was 5 which have been considered pretty amazing for her age.
On the ODs thing-one of my other children has attended for a while but the costs are rather high. We havent had any subsidies from school.
Would be happy to provide more info if you want for your study...could go on and on...
Re: Researching Children Gifted/Talented in Visual Arts
Author: Anon
Date: 17-02-12 14:04
Good luck with your research.
Extension of those gifted in the visual arts has NEVER been offered at the schools my kids attend - well-respected primary and intermediate schools with reputations for catering for the gifted. Science and maths extension are offered, and the school brings in private music teachers. Not art. For us this was a stark change from Playcentre where the supervisor was qualified in fine arts, teaching, and understood gifted kids. It seems that when kids are young, it's okay to be creative and draw things "wrong" but once they get to school, hell, we can't have kids drawing a 9-headed cat now can we, that's not how cats look....
My kids have been identified as HG/EG, with a developmental profile of my younger yielding comments about the sophisticated artwork from a very young age, something that confirmed what previous 'experts' in fine arts had not only told us, but actually approached us about. To be honest, we've been reluctant to seek extension because we feel that seeking lessons may result in the numbing and dumbing of such beautifully sensitive and creative artwork. You may find other parents feel the same as we do, especially if they have gifted children who have turned into dumbed-down automatons at school. I guess there are art teachers who teach kids the mechanics of how to draw, do things like use shading for effect, etc (I know nothing about art but with your background you will get the point) and then there are those who help children reach deep within and find what needs expressing and help them express it.
We tried lessons once. However, the art school, like many extra-curricular providers, insisted on age-based groupings, which did not really work that well for my child. We stopped because we were scared that this would affect our kids' attitude towards art. They had to do things like draw creatures, which was fair enough, but, they had to be accurate, which was a bit more difficult for a child who uses art a bit differently.
One thing we find interesting is the use of the Goodenough Draw-a-man test in the assessment of the gifted. Our child was given this and if that didn't surprise us enough we were quite horrified to find our child was 'marked down' for not drawing a person accurately. I think the person was out-of-proportion or some utter rubbish like that. The implication was that a 'smarter' child would have known all about proportion and all features would have been there, and the right size etc. The reality was our child is well aware of every little detail (drew things like wrinkles and eyebrows as a toddler) and where they should be placed, but in this case wondered why such a test was given. (We had a lot of other issues with that particular assessment, but that's another long story, yet to be resolved). It reminded me of that Harry Chapin song: Flowers Are Red.
Suggestions I would give for your website. Include a clip to the youtube video of the Harry Chapin song. It speaks to so much more than art but perhaps helps understand why parents of gifted kids might be reluctant to seek art lessons. It also highlights the difference between those 'professionals' who can truly understand, nourish and extend, and those for whom the gifted are those kids who get all the right answers in math, or, when looking at a face sees two eyes a nose and a mouth but nothing more...
We've also found Peter Reynolds to be a great author for our kids - perhaps a list of such books on your site? Ish is great for the artist who is a perfectionist - the cat may have 9 heads, but dammit, if those heads don't look "right" there is trouble!
Good luck - great idea, and how neat to hear that someone like yourself had a relatively easy road.
Is it "inappropriate" to post details of tuition you offer on this forum? Whenever time permits - HA, that's a good one - we'd love to eventually pursue art lessons - with an understanding teacher - for our younger child. Do you take your tuition into schools, like some music teachers do? We get the forms on science, math, perhaps writing, music ... wouldn't it be great if we could pay a bit extra and have our child sent out of class for visual arts!!
My 11 yo dd is gifted both intellectually and artistically. Throughout her primary schooling years she has been involved in every school-run art extension activity available. Two of these involved working with a local artist at the school every afternoon for two weeks (this was the same extension but at two different schools in separate years). Another involved one afternoon a week for a school term - a teacher drove my dd and two other students to the private studio of a famous local artist where she mentored them in oil painting techniques. Other extensions have involved pull outs for one afternoon a week working on various projects with a small group. At her last school (years 4,5 and 6) she was involved with some kind of art extension every term. At times she was also pulled out of her usual class for special art related activities or projects in another class.
I have to say that while they did an amazing job of nurturing her artistic talent they completed ignored her academic needs and gave her no extension or accomodations whatsoever. Thank god she had the art oulets, otherwise she would have gone CRAZY!
Re: Researching Children Gifted/Talented in Visual Arts
Author: Anon
Date: 19-02-12 11:48
wow Mum2e - what fantastic art extension.
Our school offers no art extension but even the academic extension is nothing as involved as what your child had for art. A teacher driving your child and two others offsite for extension? Not many schools would use the limited resources they have in that way for extension in *any* area, academic or artistic.
Can we ask what school? Think I want to send my kids there ... lol
Wow thank you all so much for your stories and information, I feel like I could research this topic for years (not the 5 weeks I have been given, which are nearly up)! A lot of you have confirmed things which I had either suspected or come across in my research. The main things I feel I can take away from this forum thus far are:
- One Day Schools are great but do not offer a lot for G&T children in the way of Visual Arts
- Schools are not always will to help fund ODS
- Schools need to try to provide more extension in Visual Arts
- Art lessons need to capture what the child is interested in so as not to allow children to lose their creativity
My feelings on the last two are as follows; Schools are aware that they have a vast resource for helping them to teach specialist subjects, it is often free and it is called their community. A lot of schools seem to forget that there are loads of retired artistic (or talented in other areas) people who would love to come in and help the teachers with their classes. Schools also do not use artists to the best of their abilities- a lot of art students I knew (including myself) volunteered to anything that was put in front of us, simply to get our name out in the community and to share our knowledge. My point is that schools can find "experts" to come in and teach a lesson now and again and involving the community in what the school does is a great way to create connections and enrich learning.
In terms of not dumbing down the lessons and making the child lose their creativity, this can be tricky. In my view it is best to try and allow the child to choose the subject matter and then to try to extend them laterally. By this I mean, rather than teaching technique such as shading it may be better to show them lots of work by different artists. However I have worked alongside children who do not want to learn about artists or be creative in what they draw, but who rather prefer to learn the techniques as they want their art to look real. This can be frustrating for both the child and the teacher as the child never thinks their work is good enough and the teacher just wants them to loosen up! I was also one of these children, I didn't think art was art unless it looked real until I was about 15!
Anon, I am not really in a position to take on any more tutoring at the moment as I am still studying and about to embark on a 5 week teaching placement. In the future I would LOVE to be able to be an art expert and offer extension lessons in schools. This would be my dream job! All I can say is watch this space :)
