Chapter 14: New Directions in Researching Young Children’s ART Making

Murder and jealousy are undeniably the stuff of which great art is made. But we are startled, if not shocked, to find these themes starkly present in preschool. How do we reconcile our belief in the innocence of preschool children with the ghoulish delight and deliberation with which Alexis and Teddy planned and executed the demise of “this body”? How do we interpret these exchanges when we learn that the children involved are enrolled in Head Start program in a depressed neighborhood in a major American city? Does the fact that these children may have witnessed murders that were not contained by a video screen change the terms of their participation in the world-making narratives that drawing encourages, making them more, or less, acceptable as a form of play with the boundaries of what is possible? How does our image of the child adapt to the (apparently) “knowing” children (Higgonet, 1998) in our classrooms?