Drawing and writing- A Re-assessment

 

  In the evolution of writing, drawing preceded writing. In a sense, it possibly led to the development of writing. Writing is given more importance than drawing perhaps owing to the perception that drawing is an artistic skill. Children draw naturally, whereas writing skills have to be taught, in the context of literate communities. Children, if left alone, would draw things that are based on their experiences. This needs to be encouraged, as their observation and their reflection would be kept alive.

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  Schooling obliterates this observational ability, numbing the senses due to disuse. This also places writing on a higher learning plane. Writing in real life also needs observation. However, what we write in schools are out of our context and experience, we hardly connect the content of writing with observation. Writing is not a cognitive tool. It is primarily a tool for achieving communication. Biologically we are not made to understand the world/the context/knowledge by reading and imagining, but to explore the world directly using our senses. Drawing helps in enhancing observation, making us observe what we draw more consciously. This can be achieved by seeing also, but drawing helps in hand-eye coordination.

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  Drawing needs to be seen as the tool which will help the child observe the world around them. Children, in fact, make drawings naturally. Almost all children draw, but then for various reasons many of them stop. Only the encouraged 'artists' continue. Yet everyone learns to write; comparatively a more complicated process. Adults have possibly done something to us, which makes us apprehensive of drawing.

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  Because adults see drawing as an artistic activity that requires special skills. Due to this children’s natural way of integrating the three-dimensional experience with two-dimensional surface is getting impacted.

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  Once naming gets more important, the cognitive processes related to senses die out. Reasoning as a process takes over. As they get entrenched in the linguistic world, the world of objects recedes from their vision. They stop being present to the world around them.

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  From the realm of timelessness, they also get caught up in the clutches of time.

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  Senses are our cognitive tools. They not only connect us to the outer world, but also the inner world, awaken sensitivity, sense of beauty and intelligence.

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  Drawing is an important activity to make children see things around them in detail. It helps to root ourselves to the three-dimensionality of the world. This rooting would help us when we occupy ourselves with the conceptual world.

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  What has been happening all this while is that the introduction of literacy and schooling, much prior to children being able to root themselves in the world. This has led to their cognitive process getting rewired. Experiencing the world directly enables us to be in the three-dimensionality of the world, whereas early literacy takes us to the two dimensional, mental, conceptual worlds.

Literacy is a useful tool no doubt. Its role is to help the human beings retain their integrity and natural being-ness. The conceptual tools, too, are useful, provided they enable us to remain connected with the real world and its natural processes.

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