¶ … children conditioned to create images to please the adult aesthetic, which consequently inhibits their own intrinsic creativity? What impact does this have on our culture? What is your opinion of coloring books?
One possible response to coloring books is that these prefabricated images inhibit children's creativity by forcing children to keep within the lines. However, it is equally possible to inhibit children's creativity by telling children that they have to paint or draw in a particular fashion and other ways are 'wrong.' Furthermore, some artistic training can be helpful in awakening a child's creativity. Teach a child the basics of sketching, working with clay, weaving, or other techniques that are not natural to the child, and the child can become more truly and deeply creative within the discipline of that branch of art.
Sometimes, without prompting, children can fall into thinking in cliches -- cliches are everywhere, cliches are what we consider 'culture.' That is why, when prompted to be creative, children may reproduce cartoons or stock images. Even though these images may not please adults, this is hardly creative. The idea of the naturally creative child is often belied by children who copy their friends' artwork, or the never-ending stream of puppies and Christmas trees in children's drawings. No one exists outside of culture, and it is a difficult thing to be a true nonconformist in art, whether one is a child or an adult.
To truly tap into a deeper wellspring of creativity requires a child to feel as if he or she has a free space to imagine, without the pressures of creating art as it 'should' be done. Encouraging children to draw a 'house that looks like a hat' or asking children to color in a picture of a strawberry in 'every color but red' is one way to urge children to avoid their desire to conform to adult expectations, to do what their friends or doing, or to indulge in the satisfying predictability of routine.
It is less the desire to please adults, or even the pressures of adult assignments that inhibits children: children like routine; they often like the same bedtime story, cartoons, and food. Adults must show warmth and trustworthiness so children will feel they can take risks in art, whether that means risking making a mistake in clay, or coloring in a person's face with a purple crayon.
