Drawing stimulates imagination and enhances the ability to generate new ideas and communicate them effectively.
It offers the opportunity to establish new thought patterns, action strategies, and innovative problem-solving techniques.
Drawing expands spatial intelligence, helping individuals better understand form, space, and three-dimensional structures.
Furthermore, drawing nurtures children’s imagination and creativity.
To prepare children for the 21st century, we must embrace new teaching methods. We believe that an increased focus on drawing and thinking in images will better equip children for the demands of a modern knowledge society.
At Earthtree, our approach to imagery, creativity, and innovation aims to enhance children’s learning and development. Since 1999, Earthtree has been dedicated to creating everything from TV programs and books to computer games. We have a playful approach to the subject of drawing, which allows us to engage children, parents, and teachers alike.
Three Fundamental Building Blocks of Learning at Earthtree:
-
Constructive Imagination
We aim to teach children how to express and develop their imagination and creativity through drawing and thinking in images. -
Visual Communication
We focus on teaching practical drawing skills to help children gain confidence and enhance their ability to communicate visually. -
Basics of Design
Design is both the process of creating an object or product and its functional outcome. Traditionally placed between art and craft, design touches nearly every aspect of our lives. We aim to expand children’s knowledge of design and its uses.
Reading and Writing Skills vs. Drawing and Imagination: The Need for an Educational Revolution
Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
Yet, we continue to educate children within a framework shaped by the industrial era. Sir Ken Robinson, a leading expert in creativity and innovation in education, emphasizes this issue in his writings. He believes that our education systems often deprive children of their creative potential, focusing too much on reading and writing skills at the expense of fostering creativity.
Across schools worldwide, there is a disconnect between literacy-focused subjects and creative subjects. Education should prepare children for a future filled with complexity and unpredictability, but often, the subjects that help kids communicate complex ideas are given low priority.
Earthtree’s Mission
Earthtree has developed techniques and methods that help teachers and students better understand, express, develop, and communicate imagination and creativity.
After decades of research, Robert Sternberg demonstrated that high intelligence doesn’t necessarily equate to creative thinking. Like Sternberg, Earthtree’s Øistein Kristiansen believes creativity isn’t a gift reserved for a select few. By stimulating children’s imagination, we can all develop our capacity for creative thinking. Creative thinking is a skill that can be learned by anyone and used by all.
Earthtree’s drawing courses are based on the firm belief that creativity can be cultivated through specific techniques that teach children to draw and think in pictures.