To be just a tiny bit bothered by what I saw at my son's nursery this morning?

[KingofnightvisionKingofinsight]

My 3-year-old DS just started at a new nursery. The teachers are lovely and kind and DS seems happy, and obviously that's most important. But anyway...

This morning at dropoff DS wanted me to stay for a few minutes so I did. I watched him sit down at a craft table set with lovely materials including glue, glitter, scraps of fabric and cotton wool, and small yellow paper circles. My DS spent several minutes carefully applying dumping half a bottle of glue to a good portion of his paper, and then he asked the teacher to pass him some glitter. She very sweetly encouraged him to put more glue on other parts of the paper first, which he did, and then she gave him the glitter. A minute later she gave him a yellow circle. He started to glue it at the bottom of the paper, but she gently corrected him, saying that the sun belongs at the top. She then pointed to a sample project that had been made. It was a picture of the beach, with an ocean of blue fabric scraps and glitter, cotton clouds, and in the top right corner a yellow paper sun. My DS dutifully copied the sample picture and proudly showed me his beach.

AIBU to be a little sad that the nursery is giving the kids the idea of what to make and even showing them something to copy? Why can't they just put out the materials and let them create? I'm wondering if this is always the nursery's approach to art or if it's just this particular teacher. She is otherwise lovely so it's not like I would dislike her for this, but if this always how art and creativity are managed at the school it does give me a bit of pause. If it is I would still be happy with the school but I think I would like to engage them a bit (in a friendly, non-demanding way) about their reasons and figure out how it impacts other areas of the curriculum.

AIBU?

If I witnessed physical abuse at my child's pre school, I'd be way more than 'a tiny bit bothered' by it.

I think if it's a one off incident, then it's not a major concern. But like I said, if your child is always coming home with picture perfect artwork, that would suggest it's always directed by the adult.
Other things to look out for are if your child always has their coat/wellies put on for them, or are they encouraged to do it themselves? Do they pour their own drink at snack time or does the teacher do it? You get the idea.

A good quality pre-school will encourage independence as much as possible, even in the youngest of children. If they have everything done for them, they won't learn to do it themselves.

I know what you mean OP, but I wouldnt complain about it. Make sure your DS can do 'free, creative' crafts at home. I used to work with kids at various nurseries and schools in Spain - they are not allowed to use black colouring pens -EVER

Tricky one. It's sad he couldn't make his own picture but the difference between toddler group and nursery is the need to start learning that the sun goes at top because it's in the sky.

Tbf, MrsDeV there's only one person who's coming across as outraged on here now
My point was that aibu was maybe not the best place to post about this (and I'm sure op has worked this out for herself). There will be strong views for and against the OP and accusations about not rtft and about being outraged, from posters who are clearly quite apoplectic with rage themselves.
There are education topics far more suited to this type of post which will have far more measured responses than aibu.

posters who are clearly quite apoplectic with rage

Who?

I'm surprised at how many people are making fun of this. Of course it stifles creativity and if this is already starting in nursery then what hope is there for later. Imagine if Picaso had listen and put everything where it should be.
My son's nursery encouraged us as parents not to interfere and had child led approach to such things

YANBU at all, and I am another who is very surprised that there are people here who don't see the problems in this approach.

Thank you to Waterlemon for supplying the Vygotsky quote/picture.

I would ask the nursery if this is standard practice, Kingofnightvision.

Don't see the harm in the odd guided activity like that but wouldn't like it all the time.

YANBU

I don't think there would be anything wrong in having a pleasant discussion about this - if we don't challenge thinking (in any sector) then we don't move forward

People don't know what they don't know and are often very grateful for a different perspective

ThIs wasn't an adult led activity in its true sense

This was an adult dictated activity

Even if a child is not a budding Picasso, art if facilitated and encouraged properly is going to teach multiple skills that are key to school and life success and come under the heading of executive function.

The elements of executive function are sometimes expressed as:
Impulse control
Emotional control
Flexible thinking
Working memory
Self monitoring
Planning and prioritising
Task initiation
Organisation

An ordinary encounter with a table set out with materials could result in all of those elements coming into play - envisioning his project, figuring out what he will use to complete it, gathering the materials, getting started in an order he has determined, keeping track of his vision as he goes along, adapting his concept as new ideas occur to him en route to the finish line, discarding new ideas too, if he thinks they won't work, maintaining physical control of the materials - care not to knock things off the table or pile stuff on top of important tools like scissors, sharing if at a communal table, focusing, focusing, focusing, ignoring distractions, switching gears from nuts and bolts like cutting and applying glue to creative decisions about placement of collage pieces, and dealing with upsets when things don't go the way he wants - glue won't stick, paper shapes tear, glitter gets spilled.

A nursery can provide structure via routine and rules about how children treat each other and how they care for the toys and materials.

yanbu art is creative. Unless they are sitting around together doing a project with an actual theme with facts (ie sun sits in the sky) then they should be free to create as they wish.

I didn't put any one down The Oddity. Could you BE more patronising. I most certainly do dedicate time to this sort of question DESPITE my circumstances. My children's education is of paramount importance to me and my older son has just won a scholarship to a private school - you don't think I had any input into that outcome?? I am simply advising the OP that based on my own experience, with years of potentially far more important educational and pastoral issues ahead of her, something like this is not worth getting so het up about. It was well meaning advice, not a put down. But you sound like the kind of person who thinks anyone in my circumstances must therefore be the kind of parent who doesn't care about their children's education. I find THAT a put down and very insulting. OP take or leave my advice....your child, your life. I was trying to be helpful and give you the benefit of my experience.

It could be a piece of work about the beach for a display that they will be making, they'd do an adult led activity with an example of what they'll be making each child will do their version and it goes on the wall as a display. I wouldn't worry there is always a combination of adult and child led activities in nursery and you dc will get lots of opportunities to express himself freely in his art and creative work.

I have had years of perspective too, Nightmonkey, and plenty on my plate when my five DCs were small (they are now 15-26), yet I reached the opposite conclusion to yours. There is no mission more important in school than facilitating the exercising and implementation of the creative imagination. The process really is far more important than the outcome (to paraphrase the Vygotsky quote above).

OP - you are right to be concerned. Why would anyone teach a 3 year old to put pre-cut components together in the 'right' way in an art activity? They can do that with a jigsaw. Unless, of course, we are now training children to be accurate at factory assembly work.
Let's have creativity and originality. As a teacher I consider any original work to be an improvement on 'colouring in' or what amounts to 'glueing by numbers', especially in pre-school.
When I was a student there was a reception teacher famous city-wide for the wonderful 'children's' artwork on her classroom walls. A trainee teacher who worked in her room commented that the artwork only looked so good because the teacher spent her evenings bringing it up to standard. Oh dear!

Haven't read the full thread, but I think it depends what the learning objective of this activity was.

It's an interesting topic, and certainly worthy of an AIBU. How much more productive the discussion would be, though, if we didn't have 'those posters' continually wading in to challenge the very existence of the thread. .. As I've said before, some posters just can't bear for anyone to be a tiny bit annoyed/concerned about anything. Odd.

I am a EYFS teacher (now in year 1 but spent 8 years teaching F1 or nursery) and we'd plan for a weekly creative Workshop activity for children to follow a model or a theme and a separate Workshop activity for the children to be able to 'create' independently. Perhaps while the teacher was there at the table, she wanted children to focus on developing spatial awareness, creative and physical skills? We often found that when left to it, many children went down the shove-a-load-of-glitter-on style of creating.

Perhaps while the teacher was there at the table, she wanted children to focus on developing spatial awareness, creative and physical skills?

That's fine, but wouldn't it be better to say that first, before the child starts their own creative approach and is then told it is wrong?

MrsDeVere - absolutely. Believe me, I agonised about where to send her. Only child. And I wasn't back to work when we were looking at nurseries so no deciding factors such as close to work etc. I really approve of the Montessori philosophy.
I suppose what I was trying to say was I try to provide different environments for exploring and learning and hopefully she enjoys them and gets something out of each different approach.

TheOddity - fab!

Please get a life .