Teaching Children to See, Not Just Draw: Inside Wild At Art
What if art lessons started with Bluey and Dog Man instead of Botticelli? What if children were taught to really look at the world around them, rather than draw the same sun, house and stick figure they learned when they were four? That’s the approach Niki has taken with Wild At Art since 2020. It began with busy garden gatherings of home-educated children and has grown into five in-person groups, digital learning packs, and, online sessions. Niki has no formal qualification in teaching or art, and her own children have never been to school. Her workshops mix ages on purpose, and every session comes with a story behind the art. She also has a firm belief that drawing is a graft, not a talent. We spoke to her about why she teaches art history backwards, what she’d say to a child who insists they’re “just not good at art”, and why a good workshop should leave children with a full head and a bucket of clinking marbles. 1. Tell us a little about your family and your home education journey. What led you to start Wild At Art in 2020? We are just a normal family of four: our two randomly turned into four, and we learned on the job. Our kids have never been near a school, so we wanted to offer them a community where they could meet children just like – or at least a little bit similar to – them. We had busy and fun gatherings of young children in our back garden back in 2019, and in 2020 we started workshops. It just made sense. I had something to offer, and I had interested and very supportive people around me, so it was an intuitive decision, just like most of my decisions. It made me push myself into new things: teaching and art, neither of which I hold a qualification in. Turns out, people actually like this aspect – real-life people who respect passion, understanding and work rather than a piece of paper. In a way, it makes me aim higher, because in some people’s eyes I always have to prove myself (like others don’t?). It not only served the children in the community, but also stood by education and the way I believe young people should be supported and educated. The idea that I could build something for them and myself from scratch excited – and still excites – me. Challenges always excite me. 2. You’ve said art education is often either missing or misses the point entirely. What did you see that made you want to do it differently? When I first browsed through offerings of children’s workshops some time ago, I came across either totally self-led sessions, such as process art, or practical skill-building classes. It reminded me of how we teach our children times tables, but we don’t tell them why. These sessions promoted a lot of big words such as “creativity” and “confidence”, telling us those things come from the outside, not from the inside. I personally believe all of the above comes from a balanced state of mind, and a healthy diet helps as well. There is nothing new under the sun; it is our connectional thinking that puts things in a new light. I don’t give children a set piece of work to achieve, and I hardly ever make teacher examples. That only sets them up for failure. When they feel they have not achieved exactly what was set out, they automatically think it is wrong, when that is far from the truth. Or, if I don’t set goals and there is too much to choose from, they end up doing nothing. It’s like when we put the telly on and there are so many channels and programmes to choose from that we browse for a long time, then turn it off. It’s a very similar psychology: giving just enough structure. Not too much, not too little. I also felt that not giving children a detailed, fact-based, human story to go along with these projects was a mistake. Why on earth would I offer a Picasso-esque project without anecdotes and historical reference? It’s, again, knowing the times tables but being unable to put them into context. I also don’t believe in loading children with ideologies. They will find out about the ideologies when they learn the facts. When you understand the world Picasso lived in, the people who surrounded him, the past -isms of the art world, the way he worked or saw the world, and then look at his pictures, these are facts. Being one of the most wonderful artists is a claim that needs backing up. And after all, we can all build our own view on it. 3. You teach art from roughly the last 80 years first and work backwards, which is the opposite of how most of us were taught. Why does that work better for children? I don’t only teach this era, but I certainly introduce art history through it. It is simply closer to our 21st-century visual perception. I chose the period from Cézanne to Picasso so I can explain to children why they think photographs are real, and more, why they are drawn to pictures like Bluey, Duolingo or Dog Man instead of Botticelli, Romanesque or Degas. Because photographs and screens have had a huge effect on how we see today. I love the work of Szilveszter Makó, because he doesn’t use the lens to create reality. Art is also not a straight road with several stops. It is a web, and there are so many turns to take that will lead us down paths we never thought were connected. I prefer starting with children’s own reality and stretching back in cycles. I find it more purposeful and wholesome this way. Children find that art is part of their lives, and then learn how it has always been part of people’s lives since the beginning of time. 4. You
