were?” they asked each other. They asked if I would use my mat knife to cut the tape. This was done and they found flat boxes for each wet cube. That afternoon I spotted them carefully carrying the painted cubes out of the school to the bus. Another year a sixth-grade boy came to my room for help in solving a friendship problem. After we finished that work he sat back and mused about the ArtBreak group he had participated with in fourth grade, remembering things long forgotten by me. “Do you remember how William (a boy two years his senior) helped me? We made Mario figures together. He showed me about the clay.”
A teacher-educator visited our studio and noted, “I was impressed with their confidence and persistence in trying various ways to present their ideas.” Because children are naturally eager to bring their ideas into form, if they are confident in their use of materials and their ability to ask for and receive help, they will tackle all kinds of problems. Here is a list of a few problems and questions engaged in ArtBreak sessions:
How to make a sturdy airplane wing?
What does a dragon look like?
How to cover cardboard tubes with pink color?
How to reinforce cardboard to make a tunnel?
How to paint a picture of a seashell?
How to attach a handmade flag to a pole?
How to get artwork home safely?
What is the best material for robot fingers?
What might best be used for a robot brain?
How to tie a strong knot that does not come undone?
How to make working doors in a cardboard Barbie house?
How to attach a cardboard tube to a cardboard box?
What does a flute look like?
What to do if I do not like my painting?
How to make a retractable light saber?
Can pink be for boys too?
What’s the best way to make a trap that works?
How many stars are on the American flag?
How to make a skirt?
Play is a learning language for children. This child has made toy binoculars to play with. Photo by Josh Birnbaum
IMAGINATION AND SELF-DIRECTION
A sixth-grade boy, when asked to describe ArtBreak, gave us this nugget of wisdom about choice, a condition that allows creativity to flourish: “We aren’t directed. Your mind is not in a can.” Another student offered: “We don’t get told what to do, what to make. We have ideas.”
The ArtBreak framework creates conditions that allow imagination and imaginative play to flourish. I learned this early on when I could not understand the source of the children’s enthusiasm about making things. In 1977, social worker and philosopher Edith Cobb wrote that a child engages imagination and creativity “through the controlled poise of his own body, through the sense and vision of his own hands moving pieces of his world into structure and pattern.” During a session in which children were making lots of cardboard objects (drums, dolls, small vehicles), hurrying to finish so that they might take them home, I asked, “What do you do with them at home?” The children put down their scissors and tape and cardboard, looked at me in disbelieving pity and chorused: “We play with them!” Of course, they were making toys! And they were incredulous that I could not recognize what they were doing. Absorbed in spontaneous mental images of things they wanted to play with, and inspired by the materials at hand, they were completely engaged in bringing their creative visions into form.
Relatedness with others grows from an environment that supports working together. Photo by Josh Birnbaum
ArtBreak creates school engagement in part by offering fun. The idea of fun and joy as a companion to learning and well-being is enjoying a revival, though fun can be a suspect notion in schools. I felt that our work bordered on frivolous, and even stopped writing down how children continually describe ArtBreak as “Fun!” until I read research on the learning benefits of fun. Fun creates engagement, meaning, purpose, and joy. Neurologist and classroom teacher Judy Willis argues “The truth is that when joy and comfort are scrubbed from the classroom . . . students’ brains are distanced from effective information processing and long-term memory storage.” Edith Cobb wrote that a sense of wonder, manifested as joy and surprise, is a prerogative of childhood and essential to the development of creative thinking. Martin Seligman, pioneer of positive psychology, believes positive emotions like fun are an essential part of happiness and well-being. And any kindergarten teacher can tell you that fun, or engagement in meaningful activity, creates joyful, happy classrooms and productive work groups.
Children participating in an ArtBreak talked about imagination and engagement:
“ArtBreak is when you can express your’ magination.”
“I watch the clock all day, waiting for 2:30. That’s when I get to go to ArtBreak.”
Imaginative play, fun, joy, choice, competence in problem solving, and belonging to a community are all linked with school engagement. Researchers Ming-Te Wang and Jacquelynne Eccles conceptualize engagement as behavioral (positive conduct and involvement in school tasks), emotional (positive reactions to school activities), and cognitive (willingness to exert necessary learning efforts). Engagement is created by a school context that supports children’s needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness to others. ArtBreak is designed with all three needs in mind.
A TRAUMA-SENSITIVE SCHOOL CULTURE
ArtBreak supports a trauma-sensitive school culture. According to the American Psychological Association about half of children in the United States experience some kind of trauma, usually beginning in early childhood. Most recover, but a substantial number do not, with poverty a significant risk factor for both exposure and recovery. The Massachusetts Advocates for Children publication, Helping Traumatized Children Learn, provides an overview of the nature of childhood trauma and what schools might do to help. ArtBreak provides many of the things needed by children who have suffered trauma in order to thrive in schools. These include the opportunity to:
• move into a state of calmness from an alarm state
Example: An eight-year-old, frantic because his father had been arrested the previous night, left a session calm after spending a half hour absorbed in art making.
• develop a sense of empowerment via choices
Example: A child from a homeless family, delighted to learn that she had free choice of a rich variety of materials to bring her ideas into form, worked to build an elaborate dollhouse to her own specifications.
• practice using language to articulate needs and feelings and to problem solve
Example: ArtBreak participants are encouraged to ask for what they need from each other and from the facilitator.
• learn about
