Reprinted with permission Child Care Information Exchange

PO Box 3249, Redmond, WA 98073 (800) 221-2864 www.ChildCareExchange.com

Why Process Emphasis Supports Learning

Why Promote
Process Over
Product?
by Sally Cartwright

We may hear the phrase process over product without fully realizing its
importance to young children. Here process refers to the childs actual
work of learning, whether it be dramatic play in which Ted, as a dad,
tries to bake a pretend pie while minding his obstreperous children; or
block play in which Meg joins her peers to build a working community
like our fishing village; or simply Nan painting at the easel. Product, on
the other hand, means the material result: Teds pie, Megs building,
Nans picture. I would like to discuss how and why we child care
professionals and teachers should emphasize process over product.*
Take, for example, the process and product of painting a picture.
Process in painting may include the
childs way of deciding to paint, perhaps
choosing a painting partner, selecting
and maybe mixing colors, putting brush
to paper, experimenting, freeing inner
feelings, sorting ones thoughts, all that
goes into making the picture. Product
refers to the picture itself. Process over
product in painting suggests we should
give our attention mainly to the childs
experience rather than to the picture.

caregivers should emphasize process

and de-emphasize product in our
room arrangement, in our contact
with parents, and in our approach to
the children themselves.

Using painting as an example, here are

eight good reasons why teachers and

When a childs painting is selected

and hung for others to see, and the

It is the child, not the painting, thats

important. A youngster needs to feel
good about herself as a person in her
own right, not as someone who wins
regard by pleasing others.

* It is assumed that under the watchful and caring eye of a mature professional any
child product is both physically and emotionally safe for all concerned.

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childs name is prominently displayed

with it, the other children, when they
see their paintings were not chosen,
may either be encouraged to compete
and then paint partly for this unfortunate reason or they may feel that
they, as well as their paintings, just
arent good enough to win recognition.
In our confusing and uncertain world,
kids hardly need such setbacks. In such
an atmosphere of competitive painting,
a timid child may fear being shamed,
and hesitate to try at all; when, actually,
an unpressured painting experience
might have eased his negative feelings
about himself. Moreover, when working
with child groups, we have the opportunity to build democratic values so
needed today. Thus, while competition
may foster discord, the childrens cooperative experience of caring for and
helping each other is essential to their
basic understanding of democracy.
Teacher and parent praise for a finished
painting gives weight to exterior reward
for accomplishment, whereas the true,
effective rewards are the childs deep
satisfaction from the learning/painting
process itself: his sense of discovery; his
own delight in accomplishment, not
dependent on others judgment; and his
indefinable joy from the integration of
muscle, emotion, and mind in the
creative work at hand.
Besides the rewards mentioned above,
as a four- or five-year-old struggles for

Sally Cartwright, with an MS from

Bank Street College of Education, has
taught children and teachers across
five decades. She has written eight
books for children
and much material
on early childhood
learning, especially
as experienced in
her own experimental school.

representation, creative painting often

helps her pull together and organize her
information. Such relationship thinking
is far more important than her memory
of separate facts.
In these early years, teacher instruction
and/or models of good painting, which
usually accompany adult concern for the
product, are all too often an interference
which may deaden the inherent rewards
of creative painting.
Children themselves show little interest
in their products, and are naturally concerned with their own active creativity.
Its mainly adult emphasis on their finished work that steers child interest
awry.
When we encourage a child toward her
own free process in painting, and watch
her at work, we may discover a good
deal about that childs feelings, skills,
relations to persons and things, concentration, coordination, thinking, you name
it. Indeed, far more is learned about the
child by observing her painting process
than can be learned by trying to analyze
the picture.
Again, process means the childs own
action. Since our finest early education
depends in good measure upon creative,
child-initiated action for learning, this is
where we adults need to put our thought
and our hearts.

Room Arrangement
How do these eight aspects of process
over product affect room arrangement?
Rather than adult direction, young children need our steady support for their
own active learning. Their classroom or
care center should be in essence a simple,
unchanging background for child activity. Too many learning environments are
overcrowded with products: paintings,
drawings, cut-outs, clay work, etc.

Instead, all the childrens paintings

not crayon, cutting, or pasting products
may be hung neatly and unobtrusively on the walls above child eye level.
This distant placement allows the childrens general impression of our room
without stressing individual paintings.
Keep each identifying name and date in
pencil and so small it cannot be seen
from any distance. Avoid adult posters
and paintings: they often say to a child,
You cant paint like this, so dont try.
In our nursery school, with two holes
punched neatly into the top of each sheet
of painting paper, we found that permanent three inch brads tapped into our
wood-panel walls (or into a lattice strip
tacked to plaster walls) hold each childs
paintings through December, when they
may be sent home. Thereafter, they hold
paintings until the end of the school year.
Thus, only the latest painting of each
child is visible.

to allow two or more youngsters to paint

together. Small-group murals also further
cooperative experience. Of overriding
importance, unfortunately, is that children can learn that they are loved for
what they do and not simply for who
they are. . . . Of course, love is never
earned. It is a grace we give one another.
Anything we need to earn is only
approval (Remen, 1997).
It comes down to this: whether painting
a picture or pursuing some other learning venture, it is the experience, the
process, which is most important for the
child. Our affirmation of this central
theme in education is essential for our
finest work with children.

Reference
Remen, R. N. (1997). Kitchen table wisdom:
Stories that heal. New York: Riverhead
Books.

Contact With Parents

At every opportunity conferences,
parent meetings, casual encounters, and
home visits we should try to share our
deeply felt knowledge with parents that
products, in this case their childs paintings, are not whats important. These are
only flags of child work at school. What
really counts is the child. Thankfully, so
many paintings are sent home at Christmas vacation, that parents cannot ooh
and ah at every one of them. Yet thats
not enough. The basic, unshakable truth
which parents as well as professionals
must know in their hearts is that each
child is unique, irreplaceable, and of
value beyond measure. Child products
cannot touch unconditional love.

Our Approach to the Children

Each child needs to feel our caring and
joy in her as a valuable member of the
group. To this end, it is sometimes good

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