December 16, 2020

Malka Haas, an interview, 1998

A piece in the puzzle of art education history

Malka Haas, 100 years these days, was born in Germany, immigrated to Israel in the thirties with the Youth Immigration Movement, and was among the religious kibbutz founders Sde-Eliyahu. She has been teaching at Oranim, The School of Education of the Kibbutz Movement, since 1960. She has raised many generations of early childhood education. There is almost no kibbutz kindergarten that has not been influenced by her way of thinking.

Her interest, work, and research are primarily in the field of early childhood education. She developed an entire educational approach by merging various theories related to child development combined with the kibbutz way of life. Her influence was beyond toddlers and young children. Most art studios created in Israel in schools for all ages somehow derives from her writings and teachings as a deep root.

She has researched and written a lot about the child’s drawing process as a model for their mental development. In her home, there’s a collection of a quarter of a million children’s drawings. Most are in individual files from the first doodles at the age of two to their adolescent drawings. A few families are represented by parents, children, and grandchildren.

The studio’s activity is also adjusted to the people’s lives in the kibbutz and to the children’s mental development. The layout of the environment and the Suggesting Materials [her term] materials is apparent. Within these limits, the children are entirely free to express themselves.

Maayan, 10 Years-old I drew and said: “Malka who is always on our side” Shira, 7 years-old, grandma has a birthday

I studied art in Oranim in the late 70ies, where she taught. I came to a few of her lectures in the Kindergarten department as I loved her profound texts [All in Hebrew]. She was a prominent deep thinking, authoritative person that had a significant impact on all who knew her.

When I was writing my theses for my MA degree in art therapy, I wanted to interview her. I also wished to attend her lesson in the kibbutz. I felt privileged to have this opportunity, and it was an unforgettable evening.

I met her a few more times and shared things I have written; she was always approachable, curious, and generous.

It is her 100 birthday. I am active in a few study groups related to therapy, art, and education. I find it necessary to mark her vast contribution, at least in Israel. She is our Rhoda Kellogg and Viktor Lawenfeld.

We arrived at Kibbutz Sde-Eliyahu, 1986, in the evening, and Malka took us to her Painting Pavilion, which is at the base of the water tower. We were invited to observe the Thursday Evening Painting Lesson for children ages 8 to 11.

Every corner of the small room 4 by 5 meters is utterly organized. There is a painting wall for children to work standing up. They take the paints from the table in the center of the room. There are three other well-defined spaces: a workbench for pencils and markers, a large table for oil pastels of all types, and the third one for collage and assemblage.

Fourteen children who gathered and worked seemed well accustomed to the little room and its layout. I asked her if she could have a larger space in the kibbutz. She replied that she prefers a small space. “It is easy for me to observe every child’s process, and it is also essential for the children to learn to work individually in a group, as they live in the kibbutz community. Sometimes 20 children work in this little room.”

The painting Pavilion, Maayan, 10 years-old.

As for the structures and the studio’s activity foundations, Malka says:

“The technical side of the work is evident. The content is entirely free. Anything is possible. This is my principal with the toddler and the kindergarten, and here—the studio functions in the same way. The children find the conditions for activity well organized to devote all their energies to their artwork. Moreover, they see that I care for the needs and put everything back in place, and this is a model for them.”

It seemed to me that the children find working in this manner very comfortable. I am impressed by the depth and richness of the artwork that shows a rare painting culture you do not often see in art studios. The children invest all their personal expression and individuality in their work. It is important to note that we are not speaking of unique or talented children, but rather ordinary children benefiting from special education. Everyone’s work is profound and significant; there is no ambiguity or superficiality.

There is no criticism or mockery of another child’s work. “I react very strictly on this matter. Mockery is absolutely forbidden.”

While working, children chat about their own things. There is no interference in the children’s chat between themselves. During that evening, a girl painted as a bride and groom married that week in the kibbutz. The children freely discussed sex, and our presence in the room did not bother them. From time to time, they glanced at us but went on with their business.

Malka circulates among them, giving technical advice if needed, reacting with an artistic appreciation or with the comment aimed to encourage the children to greater elaboration or depth. I notice that she speaks very little. She is completely attuned to the child.

When the children left, she washed the brushes. I offered help, but she said that it is a ritual she does, and the children are used to it, so she will not change it tonight.

I looked around. The children were gone.

Nona: I would like to know what caused you to enter the field of education and a bit about your personal history.

Malka: This is important because all the events in my life are interconnected. I grew up with an inclination towards art. When I was four, I saw a large Van Gogh exhibition in Berlin, and my mother recalled that later I drew cypress trees. When I was 11, I had already said that I wanted to teach painting.

When I was twelve, Hitler came to power. I didn’t finish high school but came to Israel alone with the Immigration Movement. When I was 18, the counselor said to me: “You have to decide if you want to be an artist or to build the land.” So, I decided not to be an artist, and I went with my friends to build a new kibbutz, and I worked as a cook. When the first children were born, I decided to study to be a kindergarten teacher. This would be the closest opportunity I would have to work with children and art. When I was a kindergarten teacher, art was the most substantial element in my work.

I was lucky that my mother, who had survived Berlin and arrived in New York, send me books to study children’s art by myself.

After 15 years of working in kindergarten, I was invited to teach in Oranim.

Ruth, 10 years old, 1962, wax crayons, scraffito 25X35 cm.

Among the books that my mother sent me was a booklet, which changes my attitude toward children’s drawings. Up to then, all was based on the book by Victor Lawenfeld. I immediately contacted the author, Rhoda Kellogg. In the same year, during a trip around the world to collect children’s paintings, she visited me in Sde-Eliyahu. This was before the publication of her book. Over the years, she sent me her manuscripts, and my teaching during that period was based on her work.

In 1977 my husband insisted that I take a six-month sabbatical in Boston. Fortunately, a few years before Rudolf Arenhaim taught at Harvard University, and under his influence, several people wrote their Ph.D. on the subject of children’s drawings. I met with them all and was particularly impressed by Nancy Ray Smith, a painter who studies education and psychology. She wrote her theses based on observation of brush painting development in children age three to five. In fact, she applied the principles of Piaget to the development of painting. When I returned home from Boston, I used her research to understand the crayon drawing of children ages two to three. This resulted in another shift in my teaching.

From Rhoda Kellogg, I learned to see the characteristics phenomena of young children’s drawing. From Nancy Ray Smith, I learned to notice how children develop the concept, enabling them to draw their drawings.

I have been teaching kindergarten teachers for 25 years. My goal is to educate children as human beings. This can be accomplished by basketball as well. I always say to the children that I love their paintings and that their work is an essential part of my life. Like many of my generation, I’m also an autodidact. I learned by reading and by practical work.

Nona: Do you see yourself as continuing the work of Piaget?

Malka: No. He influences me. We are also influenced by Freud, Erikson, and others.

Nona: How was the idea of the Studio born?

Malka: Have you ever heard of Arno Stern?

All events in my life are intertwined. It is again to my mother’s credit. She found a booklet about Arno Stern and sent it to me. He is a German Jew that also fled from the Nazies with his family. France became their new home.

From his childhood experience, he concluded that he should help children express themselves freely. He established a studio in Paris called Thursday Afternoon School. Where he got the idea, I don’t know, but I got the idea from him.

I read his books in French and correspond with him. I learned the set up from him, not the whole method. He never allows anyone to observe his work with the children in the studio. His studio had no windows.

Nona: What’s in this setup here came from him?

Malka: The painting wall and the paint table.

Nona: Can you relate to the way you directed children? Do you give any directives?

Malka: I give directions, but it relates to the children’s activities. The children must decide about the materials and what procedure they want to work in. I won’t suggest subjects for them. Giving directions is an individual matter. As in therapy, one must relate to each person differently. It is essential that they know that I am available in the studio and do whatever they want.

I don’t interfere in their conversation unless they say mean things about the mentally disabled or mentally ill. Then I do interfere and explain my opinion.

Nona: Did you change the organization of the Studio over the years?

Malka: The physical setup hasn’t changed, and likewise, educational principles haven’t changed. On the other hand, I feel that my work is steadily developing. Once I used to be firm that the children work first with each medium separately. Today I allow them to work with mixed-media, like drawing with oil pastels on gouache, if it suits the work’s character. What has really changed is the way I relate to color. I find it essential from a cognitive and an expressive point of view.

Nona: In your writings, did you relate to color? It is so evident here that you have a deep love for color.

Malka: My work on the development of drawing relates to the concept of line, surface, shape, and the image children develop from them. All these years, I made an effort in that direction. I want to help teachers allow the children in kindergarten and elementary school to draw freely without copying adults’ images. After succeeding to a certain extent, I could start paying attention to color as well.

This evening, the children were arguing about the painting that a girl began in black, if you noticed. I told them that the picture could start in black if it suits the feeling one wants to express. But, if they wish to blend colors, the black will be very dominant while mixing. They understood it. Usually, I refrain from such explanations.

Nona: What were you used to do?

Malka: I would let them experiment. Now I also allowed them to experiment and only then did I “formulate” it for them.

For example, this green painting was done by a second-grade girl with oil pastels. So many different colors of green were created with many layers upon layers. This girl is guided by her instincts. I encourage her and tell her that she works seriously on her painting and how many different shades she created. Previously I would have related to it as an instinctive and an emotional expression only. I would express appreciation for her work, but today I know that her intellectual perception also changes and develops by blending colors. These are aspects I learned in the last few years, and they have changed my responses.

Nona: What do you think about throwing artwork away?

Malka: Children can throw things away but only with my permission. If a drawing is in the beginning and the child is stuck, it is not worth keeping.

Nona: I often say that it’s worth keeping everything so you can see the process.

Malka: The process doesn’t interest children of this age. Children look forward. They remember what they learned and look ahead. They are so happy if I let them throw away a piece of work already started because they feel as I understand them. But there are children whose work I won’t allow to be thrown away, and I convince them to continue the process. Every child deserves an individual response.

Nona: What is the explanation of the term you created Suggesting Materials?

Malka: Creating the physical and educational conditions which enable a child to work independently in art, in the toddler’s house, in the kindergarten, and the classroom. The conditions will change according to the children’s age. The setup created for each activity in space, time, and society expresses educational principles and goals.

Nona: What about freedom?

Malka: The motto is “freedom within a framework.” Living in a given framework with its clear limit, we can be completely free.

Nona: I noticed that when too many materials are presented in the studio, the children get lost. And there is more superficiality in the artwork that is also usually shallow.

Malka: Yes, I emphasize this a lot. I don’t offer the children any tricks or gimmicks or anything extraordinary. Whoever wants to work here works again and again with the same materials.

Nona: So, how do the beautiful phenomena of deepening occurs?

Malka: From the responses. From my reactions over the years, they learn what art is.

Nona: In other words, part of the Suggesting Materials is also your reactions in talking.

Malka: Of course! From both the educational as well as an artistic perspective, it must go together.

Nona: Have there ever been situations of intense emotional crises as a result of working here? Were there circumstances in which you had to provide more emotional support?

Malka: No. The children are young, and everything is natural and simple. I had gone through three wars with them when school was closed. They would come twice a day to paint. It was amazing what sad pictures they painted and what nonsense they talked about during that time! While making the most shocking pictures, they would laugh about their teachers at school.

Ohad, 10, 1980, The cemetery

Ariel, 10, The shelter, 1970, Oil pastels 21X64 cm.

Nona: In your opinion, could you do the same work in another place, not in a Kibbutz?

Malka: My life is tied to the kibbutz and to the society I know. Children whose parents were in my kindergarten work in my studio. The unique way of work here is rooted in kibbutz life. This is my belief.

For example, a 9-year-old, a vibrant boy, invited his grandmother, who came from town, to visit the studio. He wanted to make her a present. He drew in oil pastels on black construction paper and delved into it, and let me accepted my direction.

Tonight I told him how his father is pleased with the gift he made his grandmother. I messaged grandmother, talked to the father. This makes the difference in being a member of a closed society. I know every child from his first days. This provides the unique advantage of understanding every individual’s needs and potentials.