In Italy, the teachers and children are engaged in careful observations and stimulating dialogue about real learning. In these classrooms, children, parents, teachers, artists, and community members confirm my belief that the early childhood experience is all about art. Not art as a noun, a product defined by medium, materials, and size, but art as a verb. Art as a verb honors its original meaning and intent, which is to put things together.

Here in the United States, our view of art as needing specialized training or our concern with art as something precious or expensive leaves most of us with only an external role in the act of putting things together. Most of us approach art as “passive outsiders,” ready to be entertained and then critical and disappointed when we are not. We view the art of children as less than, cute, or lacking in skills; and unfortunately, what children experience as art and then often what we see is indeed—less than, cute, or lacking content and skills.