One Thing I learned From the Kids' Workshop I Ran This Summer

I organized a kids' visual communication workshop earlier this summer. It had taken some time for a couple of the kids to feel comfortable with drawing freely and 'making a mess'.

But I think it was much easier for those kids to let go of any negative beliefs they had about their artistic abilities than it was for the adults I trained in the past.
These young people simply didn't have a long-established self-image of someone who's no good at drawing—they were equally new to everything else in life.

Drawing came naturally to many of us as toddlers—it was something we used to be goofy and express ourselves when even our mother tongues would fail us.
To the dismay of many parents, many of us didn't even need someone to give us a piece of paper and pen: we would draw on the wall with whatever we found, just like our ancestors had done on the caves we've covered to treasure years later.

So, that workshop experience emphasized the importance of approaching this whole thing with a childlike curiosity and yearning to learn so much more.

—w