The picture books of Eric Carle have inspired creativity in children and adults for a generation. The author was born in Syracuse, New York, to German immigrant parents, where he enjoyed a creative kindergarten experience which he never forgot. In 1935, aged six, his mother was so homesick that the family moved back to Germany. This proved to be a disastrous move as his father was conscripted into the German army during World War Two, taken prisoner by the Soviets and never to recover from the trauma of war.
During Eric’s time in Germany an art teacher introduced him to what the Nazis termed “degenerate artists”- namely Kandinsky, Chagall and Klee.
Experiencing the trauma of war gave Carle a different way of seeing the world. On returning to New York in 1952, he worked as a graphic designer before collaborating on his first book “Brown Bear, Brown Bear.”
As an early years’ educator I found this book to be enormously successful for the youngest children with its rhythmic text, use of repetition and exciting colours.
Eric Carle’s love of nature and small creatures inspired many of his books which have proved to be a bedrock of early learning and creativity in young children, tempting small fingers to engage with the pictures, for example, as they trace the raised silky thread to follow the spider’s web in “The Very Busy Spider.” Each of the books uses a different artistic technique with deep, multi-layered colours and satisfying repetitive rhyming text. All reflect Carle’s interest in developing young children’s creativity.
Far and away the most popular of all Eric Carle’s books (it is estimated that this book is being bought every fifteen seconds) is of course The Very Hungry Caterpillar. At first no US printers would publish the book because of the differently shaped pages with the holes, and eventually a printing company in Japan was found.
Over many years I used this wonderful book as a starting point to engage children in developing creative learning. Caterpillars were brought into the nursery and the children fed them, observed them, drew, painted, and created them in three-dimensional models using all kinds of collage and malleable materials. The lucky ones who were in the right place at the right time witnessed the caterpillars emerging from their cocoons. Alongside the observation of the life cycle all kinds of marvellous fun was happening all around the building, indoors and out with joyful learning taking place everywhere. Eventually we had a party and a ceremony when we released the butterflies into the nursery garden.
Eric Carle Quotes
“We all have eyes, and we’re looking at stuff all the time, all day long. And just think that whatever our eyes touch should be beautiful, tasteful, appealing, and important.”
“Simplify, slow down, be kind. And don’t forget to have art in your life – music, paintings, theatre, dance and sunsets.”
“One day I think it’s the greatest idea ever that I’m working on. The next day I think it’s the worst I’ve ever worked on – and I swing between that a lot.”
“The hardest part is developing the idea, and that can take years.”
Referring to “The Hungry Caterpillar” Carle reflected : “Over time, I’ve come to feel that it is a book of hope. And it is this hopeful feeling that has made it a book readers of all ages enjoy and remember.”
Eric Carle’s family issued the following statement as his death was announced:
“In the light of the moon, holding on to a good star, a painter of rainbows is now travelling across the night sky”.
Eric Carle, Developing Creativity and the Reggio Emilia Connection
Reggio Emilia is a town in Northern Italy. It is the place where a child-centred philosophy has developed and spread around the world. This approach to early years education sees children as curious individuals with the power and potential to develop and learn from their environment and their relationships with others. Children are seen as Eric Carle saw them – as having unlimited potential and being eager and happy to interact with and contribute to the world.
The History of Reggio Emilia
After World War Two the Germans left behind a tank and other military hardware which the community sold and a meeting was held to decide how to spend the money for the benefit of the town in order to move on from the fall-out of the war. A small group of women argued the case for building a school for young children which would break from the Catholic church. This would be a different kind of school with children at the heart of it, where children’s thoughts, voices and opinions would be valued as much as those of the teachers, where they explore and investigate their world. The women were successful in their bid and the first pre-school was built in Reggio Emilia. The founder of the philosophy was Loris Malaguzzi who coined the metaphor ”The Hundred Languages of Children” in order to describe the many different ways in which young children express themselves, not only through language but also communication through gesture, glance and emotion.
Several years ago I was fortunate enough to be part of a study group of early years professionals sent to Reggio Emilia to observe and study these schools and the philosophy which underpins them. The visit helped to cement my personal philosophy on early years teaching and learning and inspired me to make changes to the learning environment in my own school.
Learning in the Reggio schools is driven by the children who take an active role in co-constructing their own knowledge, giving the children control over the direction of the curriculum, encouraging self-expression, communication, team work thinking and problem-solving. The learning process is given much higher importance than the final product. Each school has an “atelier” or studio with a permanent artist in residence where the children’s creative development is assisted by rather than led by the adult.
Although this is a simplification of the philosophy I hope it encourages the reader to share what I perceive as a link between the inspirational beauty of Eric Carle’s work and ways of developing creativity in young children.
Examples of children hard at work in the ateliers
“Creativity seems to emerge from multiple experiences . . . including a sense of freedom to venture beyond the known.”
Loris Malaguzzi
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