Since children shouldn't “lose at the starting line”, those tiny hands are picking up their pencils learning how to write A for Astronaut. However, Lui Yuen Yuen, Principal of Hong Kong Christian Service Tin Heng Nursery School, encourages children to use their paint brushes to express the sincerity, kindness and beauty in their hearts. The paint brush doesn’t just serve as artistic enlightenment for the children, but also a key to their soul. It enables the school to offer timely assistance when necessary, and it might even resolve family crisis.
When you step into Hong Kong Christian Service Tin Heng Nursery School, the happy faces of children are very eye-catching, so as the display at the entrance for their art works in blocks forming exotic shapes and forms. That artistic expression might seems familiar to you and you might wonder, what is it?
“The Taiwanese sculptor Ju Ming,” Ms. Lui unveiled the mystery with a smile. “Children like to observe adults. The teacher took them outside classmate to observe people around the community, and they then created the art works using cut sponge, imitating the creative approach of Ju Ming.”
In her eyes, art is not an unattainable pursuit. The most important thing is finding the right method to take the children into the artistic realm, to express what they have observed and how they feel. At the school, children of the age of four and five will be exposed to famous artists such as Miro and Matisse, and the teachers would take them to art galleries and private studios.
When Art Meets Education
Ms. Lui has many ideas for the school because art and education are the two passions in her life. After taking her HKCEE, she applied for the IVE’s Design and Childcare, Elderly and Community Services (CECS) programme. Although she didn’t get into her first choice – Design, she was accepted into the more competitive Certificate in Child Care programme. Even until now, she still keep in mind what her teacher taught her: “The teacher taught us that for the children, we are their whole world. They learn everything from our words and deeds.”
This is why she was determined to utilise her talent in art to make children’s world more colourful. She, along with teachers from their school sponsor, formed a working group to design integrated programmes with artistic element that develop children’s creativity. The programmes allow children to enjoy the fun of creation, encouraging them to express their thoughts and feelings, and unleashing their potential through creating arts works. As a result of this extraordinary teaching method, Ms. Lui and her team won the 2011/12 Chief Executive’s Award for Teaching Excellence.
Ms. Lui believes that arts can be shared by everyone, and children can develop confidence, cognitive capabilities, communication skills and creativity through arts. By drawing together with the children, Ms. Lui can find out things that are on their mind. “For example, a child might draw his or her family members as dinosaurs.” With these clues, she would talk to the children and if necessary, reach out to their parents and provide referral service to help resolve their family crisis. This is what Ms. Lui have discovered and learned from Arts Education, what she value most after being in education work for over ten years.
Importance of Communication
Ms. Lui emphasised numerous times on the importance of communication skills for an educator. This is especially true in this era of “monster parents”. “Being exposed to massive information from the internet, it is difficult for the parents to distinguish the authenticity with their limited time. If we can strengthen their communication with the school, some matters might not get out of hand.” Therefore, Ms. Lui focuses on instilling the correct philosophies of early childhood education into the parents. She started equipping herself with soft skills while studying at IVE. “Besides teaching me the professional knowledge, what is more important is that IVE taught me how to communicate with children and their parents. Coordination is very important in early childhood education. Teachers must maintain an open attitude and work as a team. The school also provided many opportunities to strengthen my skills.”
She pointed out that within a year of study at IVE, she was given two internship opportunities, where she received instruction from teachers in real classroom, which was beneficial for improving her shortcomings even until now. “I learned that loving children doesn’t mean spoiling them. We need to set standards for them and encourage them to improve.” Currently, 75 percent of the teachers in her school are from VTC, which demonstrates her confidence in VTC graduates.
As the president of VTC’s Child Education and Community Services Alumni, Ms. Lui expressed that to conform to the efforts of specialising early childhood education as a whole, more sharing activities will be organised for the alumni. She urges all graduates to join the Alumni, keep in contact, and provide support for each other.
