True Story 1.13
The preschool art activity
that didn’t replicate abroad well
The setting for this story
Judith was an American authority on Scandinavian childhood and early education. In this story, she discusses her attempt, at a preschool in suburban Los Angeles, to replicate an art activity she had admired in a Danish preschool.
A story of misaligned minds15
I once tried to transplant to California a group painting activity that I had observed in Denmark in which preschoolers were asked to illustrate a scene from a fairy tale familiar to them all.
In the Danish classroom, the teachers gave no directions to the youngsters other than the goal of illustrating the fairy tale. Left on their own, the children first discussed what they would put in the picture (princess, castle, monkeys, trees), where items should be placed, and what each child would paint. Then they got down to work with the paints, following their plan.
In the California preschool classroom, the teachers similarly gave no directions other than the goal of illustrating the fairy tale. The children did not pause to discuss anything. They all began painting, using whatever space they could maneuver into. Soon the paper was mostly brown because they had painted over one another’s work.
Judith’s question
Why did this activity have such a good outcome in Denmark but a disastrous one in California?
Critique of story 1.13
Unlike the Danish preschoolers that Judith had observed, their American peers were not accustomed to being allowed to proceed on a project with virtually no teacher guidance.
Teachers in both societies agree that preschools should be “democratic” so that “children are able to make choices.” But when implemented in Scandinavian and American preschools, what “democratic” and “children choosing” look like turn out to be a study in contrasts.
In a Scandinavian preschool, it’s common to see youngsters being highly self-directed: whittling sticks with sharp knives, climbing steep hillsides clinging to tree roots and branches, striking matches to light candles, jumping rocks in a stream, and setting out by themselves to explore a wooded area adjacent to their preschool – all with very little adult involvement. Adds Judith, “My Scandinavian colleagues would say there is very little adult interference.”
Scandinavian educators and parents assume that young children are far more competent than has been characteristic of Americans during recent decades. Consequently, preschoolers there have daily opportunities to explore, to experiment, to attempt different ways of doing things, and thereby to learn about the environment – and about their capabilities within it. Judith’s story also suggests that, when a group of children is routinely allowed to behave very largely on its own recognizance, its members realize experientially that collaboration yields better outcomes than self-serving competition among individuals.
Importing into a classroom an activity or strategy from another society’s schools is risky. Some call this “transplanting,” leading experienced observers to compare educational transplants with medical ones (heart, kidney, etc.): For both types to function successfully, special measures must be taken to counter the host’s instinctual rejection of the foreign part.
No special measures supported the transplanting of the Danish art activity into the Los Angeles preschool. It was imported unchanged with no thought of its “cultural fit” nor of the practical steps needed to prepare the American pupils to perform it successfully.
For thought
Are Scandinavian educators unique in allowing preschoolers to figure things out by themselves? Consider this account from East Asia:
Japanese preschool teachers view their pupils’ disputes not only as normal but also desirable. They often count classroom materials such as art-table crayons and sandbox shovels to ensure that there aren’t enough to go around. They believe that if children often are confronted with resource scarcity, and if there are enough fights, most will figure out on their own how to resolve differences without fighting.
That’s a quote from Chapter 2 of my book, A Mirror for Americans: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about Teaching Students Who Excel. Visit amirrorforamericans.info.
Related stories
Stories 1.03, 1.10, 4.03, 7.17, and 7.18 also relate cases in which an instructional approach imported unchanged from one location was not effective in a distant location with differing norms and values. Story 1.09 depicts an instructional approach imported with changes that proved effective locally.
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Endnotes:
15 Friedman, 11–26. Thank you to Laila Williamson for suggesting this source to me.
Full citations are available at misalignedminds.info/References.