Synthesized answer
McMillan suggests that children's preference for drawing living models, such as animals and men, stems from an innate impulse to represent forms that best illustrate a "law of fitness and beauty" [4]. The adult human form, in particular, is seen as illustrating this law most completely, even though it does not resemble the child's own body, which is still developing and striving to fulfill this law [4]. This preference for complex, living subjects, even when difficult, indicates a "normal child's selection of a model is certainly very bold" and "strangely wise" [5].
This observation informs McMillan's view of childhood learning by highlighting the importance of engaging with natural impulses rather than suppressing them [3]. She suggests that teachers often ignore this impulse and offer little help, which can lead to a child developing a lifelong conviction that they cannot draw [1, 5]. Instead, McMillan implies that understanding and supporting these inherent drives, like the desire to draw the human form, is crucial for children's development and learning, as the human form is a "store-house of originals" where "everything which is to be flung forth at last and revealed in…
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
er, or friend, however, can himself draw an animal, or still better, a man, their delight and admiration know no bounds. Unhappily, even the best teachers, with very few exceptions (but these exceptions include Leonardo da Vinci ) usually ignore this impulse, and offer few suggestions and little help to the mannikin-drawing children. The reason is not far to seek. Even very learned people are usually aware that they cannot draw a man very well, and they do not want to be asked to try. But writers on education, feeling perhaps secure that no one will require or expect them to draw the human…
owever, at this point of mere activity and sensation. He gets a kind of acquaintance with his own anatomy by movement. But every one knows that at a certain age children want to draw, and also that for some years they show a very distinct preference for the living model, and will draw animals and men, even though these are the most difficult subjects of all and are hardly attempted by some grown-up artists, except in the way of caricature. Children of all nations and classes—Japanese children of the highest class as well as British children of the poorest class, cover walls, pavements, and…
← Defects and their Consequences Labour and Childhood by Margaret McMillan Art as a Preparation The Projection of Hands → 3674258 Labour and Childhood — Art as a Preparation Margaret McMillan CHAPTER III ART AS A PREPARATION FOR WORK AND TOOL-MAKING THE YOUNG ARTIST AND HIS MODEL T HE key to the problems of human progress appears to lie in the realm of the unconscious . It is the new understanding of that dark realm that leads people no longer to look upon natural impulses as evil or meaningless. The young child cannot project his hand, but he uses it, and invents, or discovers rather, a…
eholder does not know all this perhaps, any more than the infant musician knows that he selects the octave or the fifth. It is only because the law was illustrated a thousand times by thousands of unconscious workers and artists that it was at last appreciated and received its formula. It can be traced in the proportions of a horse's head, limbs, hindquarters. But the higher forms of life give, of course, a fuller illustration of it than do any of the lower. And the impulse of the child is, to begin with the form that illustrates it most completely—the adult human. Strange to say, this adult…
s—also when to expect profiles showing two eyes and riders whose legs do not appear behind the horse's transparent body. It is noticeable, however, that in the case of most children, those embryo-like drawings, with their saw-teeth, rake fingers, and claw-like hands, do not give place to others of better proportions. They do not go on (though it is only a step) from the straight arm to the tapered one, or from the clawed hand to the human hand. On the contrary, they stop drawing quite suddenly, and nothing remains of the early and healthy impulse but a life-long conviction on the part of…
More questions about this book
- McMillan states, "The key to the problems of human progress appears to lie in the realm of the unconscious." How would you explain her argument for this statement, connecting it to children's natural impulses and the idea that these impulses are not "evil or meaningless"?
- Chapter III is titled "Art as a Preparation for Work and Tool-Making." How does McMillan bridge the conceptual gap between a child "drawing a cat" or "experimenting with muscles" and the complex adult skills of "work and tool-making"?
- McMillan observes that a child "cannot project his hand, but he uses it" and "does not project his sense organs in instruments." What does she mean by "projecting" in this context, and how does the child's unique way of interacting contribute to their learning and creative development?
- Considering the book's overall title, "Labour and Childhood," how might McMillan's insights into children's unconscious impulses and artistic exploration be seen as a commentary on or an alternative to prevalent ideas about child rearing, education, or labor during her time?