Why teaching art to children is essentialBy Tut Sayogya JAKARTA (JP): Many educators like to criticize the mistakes made by the New Order education system, especially the curriculum, which is still in use now.
Although the system has produced millions of "intelligent" people, it has not encouraged certain capabilities because it focuses on logical-analytical human behavior. Students lack important qualities such as creativity, intuition, global analyzing, etc. Why? Every human's brain has two hemispheres. Educators and biologists have found that the curriculum designed by the New Order regime only stimulates development of the brain's left hemisphere. The primary school curriculum consists of three main sciences: mathematics, language and social sciences. The idea of developing only one hemisphere is to produce an analytical- logical human being. The functions of the brain's left hemisphere are: analyzing (partial analyzing capability), linear functions, deductive reasoning, mathematics, language, understanding verses of songs, fact finding, thinking, verbal functions, obedience, discipline and logical thinking.
Meanwhile the functions of brain's right hemisphere can be developed by doing artistic activities such as drawing, sport, recreation, music, dancing and group playing. Often (always, to be more precise) these activities are considered unnecessary by parents, who would prefer their children to become medical specialists, or some other highly qualified professional. Parents do not realize that they "create" an analytical- logical personality in their children when they only promote development of the brain's left hemisphere.
The function of the brain's right hemisphere is global analyzing. Creativity boosts the ability to create something new using the imagination. The understanding of rhythm will result in a better understanding of music. Understanding the non-verbal will help analysis of the verbal communication of other people. Feeling, mental picturing, daydreaming and intuition all require good functioning of the right brain, which can be developed from the age of six to nine years.Problems The curriculum that the New Order regime designed has not yet been revised. Educators, biologists and the general public who are concerned about the development of younger generations are yet to correct this problem.
They are facing problems, such as:
* the curriculum remains unchanged;
* not many parents realize the importance of giving their children lessons in the arts, sport and freedom to play with their friends;
* the rich tend to make their children become "idealistic creatures" because they have no financial problems; and
* parents generally think that artistic learning is useless. There is also a belief that a child needs talent to be artistically successful. Actually, the whole process of artistic learning is similar to learning a new language.Talent Through a very systematic learning system children will be able to produce good paintings. The role of talent in learning art is only one percent. The major contributors are interest, effort and willingness.
There are a thousand reasons why people do not like learning about art.
Among the most common excuses for ignoring arts is the belief that learning art does not hold the promise of a good future. They do not seem to realize that painters like Affandi, Djoko Pekik, Basuki Abdullah, Teguh Ostenrik and Erica are reasonably wealthy from their professions.
Also, there is a common belief that art is only good for dumb people who are not competent at mathematics, while we all know that mathematics is not the only yardstick for gauging a person's proficiency.
In the extreme case, narrow-minded parents will not accept an artist in their family.
Healing power Scientific studies have concluded that art has healing power by changing a person's physiology and attitude. The body's physiology changes from one of stress to one of deep relaxation, from one fear to one of creativity and inspiration. Art and music alter a person's brain wave patterns; art and music affect a person's nervous system, their hormonal balance and their brain neurotransmitters. Art and music affect every cell in the body to create a healing physiology that changes the immune system and blood flow to ailing organs. Art and music also change a person's perceptions of their world. They change attitude, emotional state and pain perception. According to neurophysiologists, art, prayer and healing all evolve from the same source in the body -- they are all associated with similar brain wave patterns, mind and body changes, and they all are deeply connected with feeling and meaning.
Art, prayer and healing all take us into our inner world, the world of imagery and emotion, of visions and feelings. This journey inward, into what used to be called "the spirit of soul" and is now called the "mind", is very therapeutic. For healing comes from within, when our own healing resources are freed to allow our immune system to operate optimally. This is the contemporary version of freeing our healing energies and it is now recognized to be crucial for healing. We go inward on the creative spiral together through art and music.
This shows that, by giving your children a chance to study art, you give them a chance to use both hemispheres of their brain. Aviva Gold, a painter and art therapist, wrote in her article Physician heal thyself, taking our own best medicine of the handicaps found in applying art therapy. The first obstacle is our need to do it right, look good and have our creative productions be esthetically pleasing by art school standards. Second, we are trained to look for pathology and hidden meaning. Third, we have an investment in being in control, having professional composure and a clever, insightful mind. Fourth, our care taking others as an effective way of avoiding our own pain and uncensored vulnerable selves. Fifth, our fear of unleashing our own madness.
The writer is a human resources consultant and art teacher.