A first-grade student makes nature-inspired contour drawings.

Kimberly Olson

Advocating for early learners is my life’s work and everyday honor. In any space, I find myself constantly elevating their voices as valuable, driven, and as capable as any other learner. While it is often trivialized, the insight and depth our youngest students bring to learning is something even PhDs should take note of. The reward of teaching them something for the first time is seeing them make connections to learning, to the world, and to themselves, laying the groundwork for a creative-minded life.

Instilling Creativity
Early childhood is the most important time to introduce art. It is a perfect setting to establish the possibility and essential necessity of being creative. Art offers endless opportunities for reflection, insight, and introspection in students who are at an age when they are receptive to creative thinking and multifaceted perspectives, collaborative approaches, and inquiry. They are new to learning in a school setting, but have been learners for years. Their individual thought processes and lived experiences are already complex but still malleable, with the capacity to sustain a creative mindset indefinitely.

The more we invest in studentsʼ beginnings, the better the outcome in the end.

Knowing Your Students
Early learners love to talk—especially about themselves, which allows us to learn who our students are. Art-making invites us into a child’s world where words are unnecessary and helps us to build rapport that leads to trust. Through this relationship-building, we can create a curriculum that reflects, represents, and engages students—one in which they will participate, see themselves, persevere when faced with challenges, and learn self-management skills.

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