Megan Kounnas

Great Moments in Art Education History

Florence Cane
Florence Cane (1882-1952) felt art being taught in schools during the early 20th Century
was stomping on child individuality and creativity, so she started encouraging children to create
art freely by painting from imagination rather than using visual
models (Junge, 2010). She invented the “Scribble Technique”
which involved drawing a continuous free-flowing line on paper
allowing it to overlap with students’ eyes preferably closed to
allow them to let go of any preconceived images while drawing.
Students would then analyze their drawings and find images
within the scribbles in which they
would reinforce to pull forward
(Brickman, 2003). She felt adults
should not interfere with children
while they were creating and only
to introduce technique when the
Example of “Scribble Technique” free-flow drawing.
child would ask for help or if it
Retrieved from amazonnews.com would benefit their work. If a child
wanted to use a certain gray color while painting, she would introduce
the mixing of complementary colors and color theory (Stankiewicz
2001).
Cane used psychoanalytic research to plan out art lessons
appropriate to age and developmental levels. Students’ age and Student using the “Scribble
Technique” retrieved from
developmental level would be taken into everyoneartist.weebly.com
consideration before planning lessons to prevent children from becoming
frustrated or insecure if expectations were too advanced (Hinz, 2009).
Younger children would be given age appropriate materials to work with
such as soft crayons, charcoal or tempera paint while older children
would be introduced to more mature media such as oil paints
(Stankiewicz, 2001).
There were several articles Cane wrote in her lifetime and the
year before her death in 1951, she wrote her only book entitled, “The
Artist in Each of Us” which talked about her idea that “Almost any child
can learn to draw or paint as naturally as to speak or write.” (Cane, 1931).
Cane’s only book. Retrieved from
amazon.com.

References
Brickman, M. (2003). Modern American education: reclaiming the tradition of active
learning. New York, NY. Columbia University.
Cane, F. (1931). Art-the child’s birthright. Childhood Education, 7(9), 482-484.
Hinz, L.D. (2009). Expressive therapies continuum: a framework for using art in therapy. New
York, NY. Taylor and Francis Group.
Junge, M.B. (2010). The modern history of art therapy in the United States. Springfield, Illinois.
Charles C. Thomas.
Stankiewicz, M. A. (2001). Freeing the Child Through Art. In M. A. Stankiewicz, Roots of art
education practice (pp. 25-43). Worcester, MA: Davis Publications.