Little Hands
From HÅNDVÆRK bookazine 3, the bookazine is sold out with English text
I grew up in a family where we made everything ourselves. My grandmother knitted, my mother cooked and sewed, my father built and fixed things and tended the garden. We children were naturally involved and also had our own projects. I owe my parents thanks for helping me build a natural relationship with not just knowing things but also being able to do things.
As a child I heard my mother talk about people ‘coming from a home with a piano’, a Danish term suggesting a cultured background. Although I did not understand the specific meaning of the concept, I sensed that it did not apply to me or my family – even though I did in fact have a piano, one that I had saved up for myself with the money from my newspaper route. I also sensed that it was important for my mother that I learned to play the piano, an opportunity she wished she had had. Generally, I understood that she was keen to give me what she had lacked herself.
As a parent, I feel the same way. When I was a child, among other things, I yearned for towering stacks of pancakes, missed having sleepovers, missed that my parents had friends.
I have an ongoing conversation with my own children about their life choices and how those choices are shaped by what they take with them from their upbringing as well as what they lacked.
My daughter, Thea, is a preschool educator; her Instagram profile lists her as ‘communicator of culture to children’.
Since her youth, she has had a unique ability to connect with children. She was many families’ favourite babysitter, so her choice of profession was not surprising but seemed obvious. She says, ‘If I can help children stay grounded in their bodies and in play as long as possible, rather than directing all their energy to their analytical minds, that’s my mission accomplished.’ She adds, ‘From an early stage in my studies I took an interest in aesthetic learning processes. The term “aesthetic learning” is not about producing a beautiful product. It’s about the process. Learning, as I approach it, involves three tracks that complement each other. Discursive learning takes place in our minds and relates to our capacity for analytical thinking and for reaching a conclusion. Empirical learning is sensed and stored in the body. Aesthetic learning, which is my main focus, is about engaging with an aesthetic medium as a way of expressing ourselves creatively in order to attain an understanding of ourselves and the world around us. The medium may be paint, clay, yarn, dance, music, food and so forth. As a preschool educator, I aim to offer children a dynamic learning environment with discursive, empirical and aesthetic learning to help them embrace themselves as whole persons, not just as a head balanced on top of a body.
Simply describing how a tadpole develops into a frog rarely captures children’s attention. But if you provide a fishing net and a fish tank for them to fill and turn into a tadpole home, their motivation soars, and their learning curve is steep. In many learning situations, it makes really good sense to combine book learning and aesthetics. Knitting a jumper involves both maths and cultural history.’
Thea adds, ‘We don’t all have to be able to knit or love drawing, playing music or catching tadpoles, but I am an advocate of giving aesthetics and hand-crafting the same honest chance that we give intellectual pursuits – in our homes, preschools and schools.’
Children generally have easy access to the imaginative and aesthetic domains. As adults, we tend to be much more analytical. Personally, I feel great joy and a deep sense of connectedness with myself and the world around me when I combine my analytical sense with activating my body and my senses as I create something – rather than relying entirely on reasoning. For that reason, I am constantly and deliberately challenging my imagination; it helps, of course, that my professional work revolves around children and that I have a three-year-old son. I love seeing his eyes light up when we play and explore things together.’
Thea plays much more with her son than I played with my children, and when she asks me,
‘What were your thoughts on play, creativity and children when we lived at home,’ I cannot help but reflect on my choices. I reply,
‘I’d like to start somewhere else. When we spoke the other day, Thea, you said, “Sometimes I miss having my own creative artistic expression; I miss excelling at something.”
As your proud mother, I see that you excel at all sorts of things, both on a personal level and professionally.
If I listen a little deeper to what you’re saying, relate to myself and consider that I “excelled at” creative pursuits, my answer to your question about what my thoughts were on children and creativity when you and your younger brother lived at home, is that I was focused on providing the right settings for our family life. Not so much the physical settings, but it was important to me that we had a wide and diverse circle of friends, that you had access to social and cultural capital. I wanted to make sure you “came from a home with a piano” and that you didn’t have to buy your own piano! I was less interested in shaping and challenging your creativity directly, the way you do with your child. I wanted to make materials and opportunities available naturally, and they were, but you had to reach for them.
I did that, both because I thought it was the best way, and, I think, because I’ve always had a professional creative expression. To me, creativity has been deadly serious, not a game – you know what I mean?’
Thea nods and says, ‘Sure, and we never lacked pancakes or sleepovers, and there’s no doubt that I drank in thoroughness, aesthetics and a sense of quality with my mother’s milk. Both my boyfriend and my friends have commented on that aspect of my personality; not that it’s something I’m consciously aware of. I bake all our bread, and I often improvise a meal with whatever we have in the fridge.
But I do understand the notion of needing to take a break in order to recharge your creative batteries. When I have spent a whole day being creative with other people’s children, it definitely detracts from my creative drive when I get home and interact with my own child.
Maybe it was precisely because you played with your creativity as a child that you were able to be deadly serious about it as an adult?’
Thea is right, there is no doubt my creative foundation was laid in my childhood. I built a home on that foundation, as my children build on theirs. Sometimes we build together, as we did in the photo series ‘Little Hands’ that you can see on the following pages.
‘When the squid has coffee with the chicken under the rainbow’ was a sentence Thea quoted as an example of children’s imaginative expressions and the endless possibilities that arise when you do not let your intellect stand in the way.
I can feel the rush of joy in that expression, almost matching the joy I feel over having this opportunity to do another project with one of my children. It is not the first, and hopefully it won’t be the last.
Thank you, not just to Thea but to everyone involved, for a couple of beautiful days, when heaven came down to earth, and the squid had coffee with the chicken under the rainbow.
Fra bookazine 3, bookazinet kan købes med dansk tekst her
Jeg er vokset op i en familie, hvor vi lavede alting selv. Min mormor strikkede, min mor lavede mad og syede, min far byggede og reparerede, og han dyrkede haven. Vi børn var altid naturligt involverede og havde desuden vores egne projekter. Jeg skylder mine forældre en stor tak for, at vi tidligt fik et naturligt forhold til ikke bare at vide ting, men også til at kunne ting.
Da jeg var barn, hørte jeg min mor tale om “at komme fra et hjem med klaver”, jeg fornemmede, at det var et begreb, og forstod, at der ikke var tale om mig eller om vores familie. Heller ikke selvom jeg havde klaver, et klaver jeg havde sparet sammen til ved at gå med aviser. Hvad jeg også forstod var, at det var vigtigt for min mor, at jeg lærte at spille på klaveret, det ville hun nemlig gerne selv have haft mulighed for. I det hele taget forstod jeg, at hun gerne ville give mig det, hun selv havde savnet.
Sådan har jeg også haft det i mit forældreskab. Jeg længtes i min barndom blandt andet efter pandekager i rå mængder, savnede at have legekammerater til overnatning og savnede, at mine forældre havde venner.
Jeg har en pågående samtale med mine egne børn om deres livsvalg, og om hvordan deres valg tager afsæt i, hvad de har fået med i deres bagage, såvel som i hvad de ikke har fået med.
Min datter Thea er pædagog, på hendes Instagramprofil står der børnekulturformidler. (sådan stod der i 2020, nu står der @kirsebaerhuset.privatpasning )
Hun har, siden hun var ganske ung, haft en særlig evne til at omgås børn. Hun har været mange familiers yndlingsbarnepige, hendes valg af livsbane var derfor ikke overraskende, snarere indlysende.
Hun siger om sig selv: “Hvis jeg kan bidrage til, at børnene bliver i kroppen og legen så længe som muligt og ikke reserverer al energien til deres analytiske hoveder, så er min mission opfyldt”. Hun uddyber: “Jeg blev tidligt i mit uddannelsesforløb optaget af begrebet æstetiske læreprocesser. Begrebet æstetisk læring handler ikke om at frembringe et smukt produkt. Det handler om processen. Læring, sådan som jeg arbejder med det, foregår i tre spor, som komplementerer hinanden. Den diskursive læring foregår i hovedet og knytter an til vores formåen at tænke analytisk og finde frem til en konklusion. Den empiriske læring sanses og lagres rent kropsligt. Den æstetiske læring, som jeg er mest optaget af, handler om, at man gennem at bruge et æstetisk medie får mulighed for at udtrykke sig kreativt. Dette for at få en forståelse af sig selv og sin omverden. Mediet kan være maling, ler, garn, dans, musik, mad etc. Som pædagog er det for mig vigtigt at tilbyde børnene et dynamisk læringsmiljø med både diskursiv, empirisk og æstetisk læring for at favne, at de er hele mennesker og ikke kun hoved på krop.
Det fanger sjældent børnenes opmærksomhed, hvis man taler om, hvordan en haletudse udvikler sig til en frø, men stiller man fiskenet og akvarie frem, som de skal fylde op og indrette til haletudsehjem, så er motivationen og dermed læringskurven stejl. I rigtig mange læringssituationer giver det virkelig god mening at kombinere det boglige og det æstetiske. Der er både matematik og kulturhistorie i at strikke en sweater.”
Thea fortsætter: “Vi behøver ikke alle kunne strikke eller være vilde med at tegne, spille musik eller fange haletudser, men jeg vil kæmpe for, at det æstetiske og håndens arbejde får en lige så ærlig chance som det intellektuelle, både hjemme, i daginstitutionerne og i skolerne.”
“Børn har som udgangspunkt let adgang til fantasien og til det æstetiske. Vi voksne er mere tilbøjelige til at analysere. Selv oplever jeg en stor glæde og en stor forbundethed med mig selv og min omverden, når jeg kombinerer min analytiske sans med det at bruge min krop og mine sanser, når jeg skaber noget, frem for når jeg udelukkende tænker noget.
Derfor udfordrer jeg konstant og bevidst min fantasi, hvilket hjælpes på vej af, at jeg arbejder professionelt med børn, og af at jeg har en treårig søn. Jeg elsker at se, hvordan hans øjne lyser, når vi leger og udforsker sammen.”
Thea leger meget mere med sin søn, end jeg har leget med mine børn, og når hun spørger mig:
“Hvad tænkte du om leg, kreativitet og børn, dengang du havde os børn boende hjemme”, så kan jeg ikke lade være med at overveje mine valg, samtidig med at jeg svarer:
“Jeg starter et andet sted. Da vi talte sammen forleden, Thea, så sagde du: ‘Indimellem så savner jeg, at jeg havde et eget kreativt, kunstnerisk udtryk, savner noget at være helt vildt god til.’
Jeg kan som din stolte mor se, at du er helt vildt god til alt muligt, både privat og professionelt.
Hvis jeg lytter et lag længere ned i det, du siger, relaterer til mig selv og kombinerer det faktum, at jeg ‘har været helt vildt god til noget kreativt’, så er svaret på dit spørgsmål om, hvad jeg tænkte om børn og kreativitet, da du og din lillebror boede hjemme: Jeg var meget optaget af, hvordan rammerne for vores families liv skulle være. Ikke først og fremmest de fysiske rammer, men det var vigtigt for mig, at vi havde en stor og broget omgangskreds, at der var social og kulturel kapital. I skulle komme fra et hjem med klaver, og I skulle ikke selv købe klaveret. Jeg var ikke nær så optaget af at påvirke jeres kreativitet direkte og af at udfordre den, som du er i forholdet til dit barn. Jeg tænkte mere, at materialer og muligheder skulle være naturligt til stede, og det var de, men I skulle række ud.
Sådan var det både, fordi jeg tænkte, at det var bedst sådan, men også, tror jeg, som konsekvens af at jeg altid har haft et kreativt professionelt udtryk, for mig har kreativitet været blodig alvor og ikke leg. – Forstår du, hvad jeg mener?”
Thea nikker og siger: “Ja, vi har hverken manglet pandekager eller overnattende kammerater, og der er jo ingen tvivl om, at jeg har fået grundighed, kvalitetssans og æstetik ind med modermælken. Det er noget, både min kæreste og mine venner påpeger som en del af min personlighed, uden at jeg selv er særlig bevidst om det. Jeg bager alt det brød, vi spiser, og jeg improviserer ofte med de råvarer, vi har i køleskabet.
Jeg forstår nu godt det der med at have brug for at give sin kreative side pause for at lade den op. Jeg kan mærke, at hvis jeg er kreativ en hel dag sammen med andre menneskers børn, så bliver det lidt på bekostning af, hvad jeg finder på hjemme sammen med mit eget barn.
Måske var det netop, fordi du som barn legede med din kreativitet, at du kunne gøre den til blodig alvor som voksen?”
Thea har ret, det er helt sikkert, at jeg fik støbt fundamentet i min barndom. Det fundament har jeg bygget hus på, og mine børn bygger videre. Nogle gange bygger vi sammen, som vi har gjort det i billedserien “Små hænder” som kan ses på de følgende sider.
“Når blæksprutten drikker kaffe med kyllingen under regnbuen”, sagde Thea som et billede i vores indledende snak, da hun over for mig skulle beskrive børns fantasifulde udtryk og den endeløse række af muligheder, som opstår, når man ikke lader intellektet stå i vejen.
Jeg kan mærke suset af lykke i det udtryk, nogenlunde så lykkelig er jeg over igen at have fået mulighed for at lave et projekt sammen med et af mine børn, det er ikke første gang, og det bliver forhåbentlig heller ikke den sidste.
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