The Artistic Creativity of Children and Values Education

Values Reflected in Artwork Contained in the Proceedings of the Meeting of the Croatian Association of Children’s Spiritual Creativity “Stjepan Kranjčić”

Abstract

Values are transmitted in a variety of ways, most notably through upbringing. In this paper, the teaching of values education through visual/artistic communication is explored in reference to the Meeting of the Croatian Association of Children’s Spiritual Creativity „Dr. Stjepan Kranjčić”. The paper identifies the values promoted through the children’s artwork published in ten volumes of the proceedings of the Association of Children’s Literary Creativity „Kranjčić“. Children were encouraged to promote spiritual and socio–humanistic values through their art. From 2012 to 2021, the artwork of 245 children was published in the proceedings. Messages on values education with regard to spiritual, universal, cultural, political, material and vital values were transmitted through their art. Values which were promoted the most were spiritual (61%), followed by universal (27%), cultural (15%), political (4.1%), material (1.6%) and vital values, which include health and the human body at 0.8%. The children conveyed messages through their art on true faith, holiness, love, piety, kindness, hope, family, friendship, humility, knowledge, beauty of the soul, modesty, education, tolerance, interpersonal relationships, cultural heritage, job, work, strength and health. Since the competition emphasized the spiritual aspect, the hypothesis was confirmed that children expressed their spiritual values mostly through their art. By means of a combination of various teaching methods, teachers encouraged the children’s creativity and guided them toward their teaching goal — personality development through values education.