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Since this piece is about inculcating a child with taste, I'd just like to say that in my own life, learning the basics of an analog art form like sketching or
by vonnik 3y ago
Since this piece is about inculcating a child with taste, I'd just like to say that in my own life, learning the basics of an analog art form like sketching or piano has been the most powerful way to appreciate the effects that the art can create, the power and potential and degrees of freedom. The gloss on Maria Edgeworth's writing doesn't mention this, but by becoming an amateur, it's a little easier to see how much a great artist must have mastered to express what they did. Standing on the foothills to see the peaks...
And I think that's possible with kids, first just by exposing them to the idea of making, that they can be a producer rather than a consumer of sounds and visuals. And then by modeling the behavior, giving them an example of an adult who sits down and makes something physical.
And finally by actually trying to teach them skills, one inch at a time. A lot of kids in America grow up without those things 1) the idea that they can create; 2) access to tools however basic; 3) the vision of someone actually doing it; 4) the support of someone who can put them on the gradual path of skill acquisition. Like most elements of culture and behavior, it starts at home, and it's hard to create effective institutional proxies.
PG gets into this a little when he talks about transcribing his younger son's oral stories. It's that kind of parental support that parts the waters so that a kid can see what's possible.
- sharadov 3y agoI disagree - art is emphasized a lot in the early years in US public schools. My kids were constantly drawing and coloring till their 2nd grade. And there is a lot of emphasis on making crafts. My older one who is 11, has projects - where they are asked to research a topic, make a presentation and speak about that in class.
- vonnik 3y agoI'm sure that's the case for a fair number of schools. And I also think that in many others, it doesn't happen. There's huge variation across schools and districts. But... I think parents can greatly augment those school activities if they have the skills that students are practicing, and when that's the case, and when students see adults making meaningful use of such skills, I suspect they learn faster!
- esafak 3y agoI think you need to reflect to develop taste, not just create art for fun as kids do, and this is something schools don't teach until high school. It also happens if you go deep on your own.
- vonnik 3y agoI totally agree, but they covered that in the Edgeworth article, so I didn’t feel like I needed to bring it up in comments. But yeah, exposure, guidance toward the good stuff, and thinking about what makes it good. Totally agree.
- vjk800 3y agoI don't know. My parents made me learn how to play piano as a child (well, they didn't force me, but let me understand that they really wanted it) and as a result I was completely uninterested in piano and classical music in general for a long time. Somehow the stuff you grow up with always becomes uninteresting until maybe later into the adulthood.
- wombat-man 3y agoSame. I wonder if my parents had me try a few more things if I'd have found something I'm a little more interested in.
- vonnik 3y agoI hear that. I also wasted several years of piano lessons that I had to attend as a boy, only to come back to the instrument much later. I'm very much on the "inspire kids to want to do something" side of education and skill development, which is why I think it's important for them to see adults having a lot of fun, or making something meaningful, so that they want to do it. That makes all the difference, and it's one reason why families of musicians tend to breed future musicians.
- ghaff 3y agoMy parents--and probably mother in particular--were in retrospect very determined not to push me into (non-academic) activities that I didn't pro-actively express an interest in. (I think my mother had piano lessons that she didn't really like.) I'm not saying this was good or bad but did result in me never having any real exposure to doing music or art. And I never had much in the way of music or art in school.
- pazimzadeh 3y agoSame, for classical guitar. I hated it. But now I have perfect pitch, which apparently requires early exposure/training of the ear.
- temporarara 3y agoInteresting. I would have thought that perfect pitch is not helpful at all with classical guitar. Can you tolerate music that is (deliberately) slightly out of standard tuning?