Art for Math's Sake

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Art for Math's Sake

Study after study has recently come out to prove a seemingly obvious point. You should read to your child from the beginning. Like the studies about Mozart and language skills, the reading studies have been taken to a ridiculously scientific level. Soon, studies will be coming out that prove that Mozart makes absolutely no difference in a child’s ability to learn math. Hopefully, this won’t cause parents to abandon Mozart altogether, simply the force feedings of twenty prescribed minutes of Mozart a day. There is inherent value in listening to music that has nothing to do with mathematics at all.

The same could be said for the reading studies. Perhaps reading to your child won’t make her a genius overnight. She may not become an astounding writer, and she may still struggle with learning to read. That’s OK. It doesn’t mean that the reading is failing. Spending a quiet twenty minutes immersed in a good book with your child, even your newborn baby, is a treasure every parent should utilize simply for the fun of it. While reading to newborns makes some people self conscious, taking advantage of the fact that your listener has not yet developed literary tastes of his own is something that should not be passed up. Later, when you’ve read Goodnight Moon for the four-hundredth time in a row, you may look wistfully back on the days when you could enjoy a good novel out loud.

The problem with making studies about learning scientific is that it prompts a scientific reaction. If children learn foreign languages best before the age of three, we must therefore work on an active regimen of French, or Japanese, or Latin. Regimens seldom promote love of learning, and rarely work as well as simply spending time with your child. By all means, teach him French, but not in a structured way. That isn’t how he’s learning English, and it won’t be how he learns French. Language is organic, and a child learns as much from facial expression and gesture as from repetition. If your child is read stories in French, sung to in French, and casually chatted to in French, he will pick up on the language much more happily and naturally than if he has French lessons every Wednesday at noon. The English lessons you give him are not limited to Thursdays.

I’m not trying to suggest that we throw out all the evidence that reading and the arts promote learning. Just the opposite, in fact. I believe that education has many facets, and that all are equally important. I see no reason why Mozart wouldn’t help a child learn math, but then again, I don’t see any reason why Mozart would transform a child into a mathematical genius. Art and math are interrelated, and the compartmentalizing that occurs in public education is simply being transferred to a younger group of children as we place our kids in class upon class before they turn three. Of course, not everyone has the time or energy to teach their children everything that we hope they will learn, so outside help is necessary. I just question why numbers must be taught at eleven A.M., and painting taught at noon.

Even a parent with the busiest schedule can take the time to sit down with his child and read a story, or listen to a record, or talk about the child’s day. When a child doesn’t have the words to express these ideas, that time is even more important. Not only are we teaching the ways to communicate the events and emotions of the day, but we are also demonstrating that we understand, and that the child is important. My one and a half year old son spends most of his day running around and climbing and jumping and yelling, but he will always take time out to read Emily’s First One Hundred Days of School. (Actually, lately he’s been forcing me to take time out by demanding that “Mommy read Emmy.”)

Don’t worry that your child doesn’t understand, or that your child is uninterested. Even if she gets up and starts walking around the room, chances are she’s listening to your voice. Children’s books are fun to read, and if you keep reading, your wandering lamb may come back to the fold. As much fun as there is in horseplay, there is a different and equal sort of fun in quiet play and reading. Learning is still appreciated as play during the toddler years, and what we need to do is nurture the fun, not the work. What could be more pleasurable than listening to great music, or learning the first ten numbers? By fostering the pleasure of learning, we will have children who may not be geniuses, but who will certainly love to learn. Ultimately, that pleasure in learning is the more important trait.