Many modern approaches argue that children should not spend time exclusively in homogenous, same-age groups. The school system is currently set up in a way that gives us no choice. We divide children in the school system by age. Here, too, culture with its cultural institutions is an excellent helper. I have always loved seeing children lying around in the galleries painting, filling in worksheets, and getting to know artworks through play. Children happily move among adults and enrich our view of art with their, absolutely specific, opinion.
Children belong in museums, galleries, theatres, simply everywhere where adults go. Surely you have ever experienced a child who can hardly sit for a relatively long time in the circle of the family, at mass in the church, at a theatre performance, or watching a concert with interest. And that despite the fact that we would not expect it at that age. This is mostly due to long-term experience, when the parents guided the child, often by their own example, on how to behave in society in a given situation. Just as we raise a small reader from a baby, we raise a lover of culture and art. And there is often a lot of work behind it. A child needs time to get used to it, to soak up the atmosphere, sometimes it just needs to get to know the space more than once. It is possible that with a small child you will not go more than one floor, one room of a museum, that you will only see a part of a performance. Fortunately, programmes offered by cultural institutions already include those that allow younger children to spend time in the organisation in such a way that their needs can be respected. It is alright if there are children in society, we have to find solutions and ways to make them welcome even in places that do not seem child-friendly. Parents and grandparents know that children do not need much to feel safe in a given environment. In particular, a friendly approach, acceptance by the environment and a technical background where the parent can quickly respond to the child’s needs. But after all, we adults also need a suitable technical background. Culture should be the most inclusive segment overall. So far, I can say from my own experience that especially the technical implementation is a problem that can sometimes be saved by warm approach of the employees, but this is not the rule. Cultural institutions have always been a refuge for me, an island of well-being and mental stimulation in a sea of ordinary duties. I consider it essential that they are at least as pleasant and technically prepared for people as shopping centres (of course, I am not comparing cultural institutions with shopping centres in terms of content).
Specialized programs for children are an excellent way to bring art, space, and convey the experience of the art form in an appropriate language even better. And then just connect. Experience the children’s programme at the library and then go to borrow books. (Yes, in family-type libraries, they also have concertina books, for example). We feel cultural and artistic experiences for a long time, they have long-term effects on our thinking, behaviour, feelings. Children feel it the same way. Sometimes a performance, an exhibition, a book … apparently was not interesting for a child. And then the child mentions it half a year later in a completely different context. Culture and art connect reason with emotions. In marketing literature we think about selling not a show, but an experience. Today we already know that information linked to some type of emotion or experience is better remembered, we work with it better than with knowledge. Thanks to this, experience-based learning is seeing a boom. Everything in education probably cannot be colored by experiences, there really is too much knowledge in today’s world. But the knowledge that sticks with us more profoundly will have a decisive say in our later decisions in life.
What kind of world we shape around us, what aesthetics we encounter from childhood, what the architecture of our environment looks like, what values the society around us puts on a pedestal, what customs, traditions we experience, shapes us from the age of wearing nappies. And thanks to the neuroplasticity of the brain, until we die. Literally. Today, bookstores and Internet courses offer an endless stream of literature on various educational directions and procedures. As I was leaving through these publications, what I missed in them was the consideration of culture and art and their place in children’s lives. Aristotle already dealt with the therapeutic effects of art. Swedish scientists (in 1997 a study was published by a Swedish research team from Umeå University on the correlation between lifestyle and health) found that consumers of culture live longer. Perception, acceptance of cultural experiences has the ability to increase the immunity of the human body. And this is just a sample of the positive benefits of culture. For all those beneficial effects, we should make sure that cultural education does not just get to the centre of our educational system, but that we live it literally starting from the age of wearing nappies.
Jana Javorská
The Kultúrny kyslík (Cultural Oxygen) project was supported from public funds by the Arts Council (Fond na podporu kultúry) as the main partner.
