Shulsky, Debra and Donna Kirkwood.

"Beyond Tempera Paint: Authentically Exploring Visual

Art in Early Childhood." Childhood Education, vol. 91, no. 5, 01 Jan. 2015, pp. 363-369.

EBSCOhost,

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Debra Shulski is an employee of the School of Education at The University of Houston,

and Donna Kirkwood is an expert on home instruction for parents of preschoolers. In their

article, “Beyond Tempera Paint”, writers Debra Shulski and Donna Kirkwood surmise that art

education is as important an factor in a child’s early education as math or science. It provides

young learners with opportunities to be creative, to express themselves aesthetically, practice

fine motor skills, and have a sense of accomplishment and success. Most importantly, however,

practicing visual arts acts as an outlet for children to hone creative thinking skills that transfer to

more academic areas. For example, the simple act of mixing paints enforces the understanding of

the relationship between decision making and achieving a desired result. As students grow more

proficient at making these connections, they also

become more proficient at applying these skills to

social studies, math and science. When exploring

the works of others, early learners also begin to

understand that art expresses the thoughts and

emotions of the creator, a skill that is easily

incorporated into language arts and social studies. The authors say that “when children have

access to sufficient supplies, they can begin to incorporate the details that they notice as they

create their own representations.” The article also includes many suggestions as to how one
would include art in the classroom. To encourage creativity, the authors suggest self-portraits

and art analysis. To increases art appreciation, they propose gallery walks, and talking with local

artists.

 Abraham Maslow stated that “If we hope for our children that they will become full

human beings and that they will move toward actualizing the potentialities that they have,

then, as nearly as I can make out, the only kind of education in existence today that has

any faint inkling of such goals is art education.”

 According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children young

children should be provided with varied opportunities to gain an appreciation of the arts

and opportunities to develop “skills that support artistic expression.”

I chose to use this article because it they share a similar position as I do in regards to this

subject. They also answered a lot of questions that I had regarding art education. I needed to

know effects of having children engage in art at a young age and how to incorporate art into

various other subjects in the classroom.