Surjit Singh FloraSurjit Singh Flora Art plays a crucial role in understanding the development and legacy of human civilizations. It enhances the beauty of life and promotes holistic development in children, including mental, cognitive, and imaginative growth. Drawing, in particular, improves children’s imagination, measurement skills, and observation abilities. It helps them recognize concepts and objects through visual representations. The School Education Board curriculum includes various forms of drawing, such as geometric, figure, fantasy, and form line drawing, to foster students’ creativity and skills. Research from the University of Waterloo suggests that drawing benefits not only children but also teenagers and the elderly. It makes learning more accessible and memorable, especially for complex or abstract concepts. Drawing connects students with nature, instilling environmental awareness and a sense of responsibility. It plays a vital role in other subjects, such as science and social studies, by creating illustrations, diagrams, and maps. It also improves handwriting and calligraphy, enhancing students’ examination performance. Despite its importance, drawing has often been neglected in schools. Qualified drawing teachers are urgently needed to fill vacancies and improve students’ future prospects. Parents can support their children’s artistic endeavors by providing encouragement, sharing their own perspectives, asking thoughtful questions, and exploring different sources of inspiration together. The writer shares examples of drawings created by Gurleen Flora, his daughter, who embraces creativity and finds inspiration in various mediums.
Surjit Singh Flora
According to researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada, this strategy can benefit toddlers, teens and the elderly.
Here are some recent drawings by Gurleen Flora, my daughter.
Throughout history, the development and legacy of human civilizations can only be traced through the artistic achievements of each era. Art has beautifully captured the rich history of civilizations across the world through various mediums such as sculptures, photographs, utensils, coins, toys, jewelry, weapons, and clothing. Art has a significant impact on enhancing the beauty of life. Drawing and painting are immensely important in promoting the holistic development of children, which includes their mental, cognitive, and imaginative growth. This promotes the artistic growth of the entire character of the child. Drawing organizes the world, from the smallest objects like a needle to larger objects like an airplane.
Drawing subjects improve children’s imagination, art aesthetics, accurate measurements and observation skills. In primary school classes, students have no knowledge of letters, so they learn to recognize the names of things only through the medium of images.
The School Education Board includes geometric drawing, figure drawing or object drawing, fantasy drawing, form line drawing, letter writing, poster drawing, designing, collage making, stenciling and scaling in the drawing curriculum. The curriculum encourages students’ imagination, power and self-expression, thereby enhancing their skills, abilities and creativity over time. It also serves as a foundation stone for students who pursue future careers in engineering, architecture, drafting and interior design.
Pictures are easier to retain in our minds than words. This makes it easier to remember things that are difficult to remember by drawing pictures than by taking notes. According to researchers at the University of Waterloo, this technique can be beneficial for children, teenagers and the elderly.
While drawing makes the students physically stronger, it also connects them to nature. In primary school, they feel one with nature by drawing beautiful natural scenes such as birds, animals, flowers and trees. Such feelings also motivate them not to cut down trees and save the polluted environment. In this way, they become sensitive and responsible people who think, understand and feel in the world instead of merely materialistic people.
Drawing also plays a special role in learning and understanding other subjects. It makes difficult and boring subjects interesting and easy to read. Drawings help in making pictures and photographs of various subjects in science such as flowers, leaves, plants, human organs, digestive systems and chemical experiments. Drawing is the only method in social education that enables one to make maps, pictures and graphs. Drawing subjects that teach beautiful handwriting and calligraphy improve the examination marks by bringing beauty to handwriting in all languages. The present curriculum also awards special marks for beautiful writing. Other subjects are incomplete without drawing in the true sense of the word. Schools have long neglected and undervalued drawing as compared to other subjects. At present, there is an urgent need to recruit qualified drawing teachers to fill the vacant positions in drawing, thereby improving the future prospects of students.
Many parents think that the only way to respond to your child’s artwork is to give him or her a compliment or ask what kind of artwork it is.
My daughter, Gurleen Flora, is also a 10th grader who loves art. I support and encourage her creative spark. I also encourage her to embrace her creativity by finding inspiration in different sources, such as music, literature, art, or her own life experiences. I share my preferences with her enthusiastically. I am genuinely passionate about art and the creative process. I ask her enthusiastically to explain the piece. I ask her about her experience creating it. I ask about her choice of color or medium, the emotions her work evokes, and the impact she hopes it has on others. Here are some recent drawings by Gurleen Flora, my daughter.
(The writer is a veteran journalist and freelance writer living in Brampton)
