An art lesson in Primary 1 that triggered my right hemisphere to like arts
Written on 9 February 2020
An art lesson in Primary 1 that triggered my right hemisphere to like arts I was in Primary 1. The classroom was at the far end of the school; in fact it was the very last one in the school building which was in the shape of the Chinese characterd for mountain 山. I never complained about the location, because it was closest to the toilet block, and that came in handy. It saved me a lot of time and energy to walk there. Can't you remember what I just told you that I was in Primary 1? My legs were much shorter then.
My class teacher was a lady, slightly plumpish, and wore a pair of glasses. The students including me addressed her as Teacher Liang. She was approachable, and carried a smile on her face most of the time. Besides teaching us reading and writing in Mandarin, she also taught us singing, and drawing / painting. She played the piano.
Despite having a memory like an elephant, I could only remember one or two things about Teacher Liang and her teaching. I remember I visited her at the end of the year with Mum to thank her for being a good teacher.
During those days, there was a big "dark green board" mounted on the wall in front of the classroom. I was not a tall boy, and therefore, lucky me, I sat in the front row just facing the board. I could see the board without straining my eyes, and hear clearly what the teachers delivered. I did not care about other students making noise in the class.
White chalk was used to write on the board, except when the teacher wanted to highlight something, then colour chalks were used.
Besides that, colour chalks were used for drawing. On this particular day, Teacher Liaung drew something that changed part of my life, not the whole life, but only the development of the artistic part of my brain. Teacher Liang drew a lot things on the board before, but this gigantic drawing filled in purple and green was something unusual about it. It was a vegetable, not the usual one I was familiar with.
It was a Brinjal. Oops, the brinjal I knew was not a big fat one like that. It should be like the size of a cucumber instead. I should know this, because Dad had a market store in the Central Market in Kuala Lumpur, selling all sorts of fresh vegetables.
When I arrived in Australia years after, I learnt that Australians had no idea what a brinjal was. The big big fat "brinjal" Teacher Leung drew was known as an Egg Plant.
Purple was not a common colour that I encountered in daily life, and the shape of the brinjal drawn by Teacher Liang was similar to a baby's milk bottle. Was there a correlation between the two features? I could not figure out even until now. Strangely, I can still recall that image just like when I first saw it drawn on the dark green board.
This experience convinces me that what children learn in early childhood and in primary schooling will have an impact in their future development and undertakings. However, most people do not realise, because they never think those early days matter.
I shall write more about my "artistic skill" development in my future blogs yet to be written and published in my special interest group.
Thank you for reading.
