Pedagogies of crayons: Modes of existence
“A dance of attention is not attentiveness of the human to the environment but attentiveness of the environment to its own flowering, at the very limit where experience and imagination, immediacy and cross-checking, overlap.”
The way materials exist depends on our perspectives.
“Existence can be found not only in beings, but between them. Modes of existence do not reify being by taking it as already constituted. They involve comings-to-existence through singular events where object are in the making.”
Children’s ways of relating with crayons has enabled an alternative way of being with materials and milieus.
Inside the infant-toddler centre, the children are offered a big sheet of paper and colored crayons on the table. I pick a black crayon and start drawing a wheel of truck as a way of inviting the children into a drawing event. The children attend to crayons and attend to my action. The act of attending brings and composes multiple existence of crayons.
Emily comes to me and put her hand on top of my hand and said “ together”. We start drawing, feel the movement of our hands, and see how the shapes of wheels start to emerge through this collaborative choreography. Then, I hear Tomas exclaim “ a wheel”, pointing the wheels drawn by Emily and me. He excitedly grabs some crayons and places them gently inside the small compartment of a car he is driving. Luke picks some crayons and puts them into his pocket of jeans, and then off to the snack table with big smile on his face. Jacob brings a jar to collect crayons as if he collects treasures. Jonah next to Jacob creates an interesting composition with crayons.
Attending to children’s engagement with crayons expands my expectations and initials thoughts on what crayons can do.
Modes of existence of crayons in this singular event are multiples and relational. It tells us delightful ways of being and living with crayons.
Bo Sun Kim
References
Manning, E., & Massumi, B. (2014). Thought in the act: Passages in the ecology of experience. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.