Sure Kid, I'll Draw Ya a Bunny.

When you're a cartoonist and you work with kids, here is a phrase you hear a lot:

"Could you draw me a....?" (Bunny, Elephant, Princess, Spider-Man, Robot, Horse...)

Used to be, I would try to get out of this. Not a good pattern, I thought. I'm here to help them draw and learn from drawing, not be a drawing service.

I'd even heard various art teachers say things like, "Never draw for them," "Never show them how to draw something..." so I figured this was going to short-circuit their creative little brains and turn them into un-creative non-drawing potatoes. Or something.

So I tried saying, "I'll draw you something if you'll draw me something," or, "I'm sure you can draw an aircraft carrier really well," or the classic, "Nope."

But see, I've realized something. Kids know what they need to learn something. Their curiosity tells them. Then they tell me. I should listen.

Seriously. Kids are hard-wired to learn things. It's what they do for a living. They learn how to swim by jumping off the step in the pool a hundred million times. They learn what different foods do by mixing them together. In this way, they master things like talking. This is no small thing.

So who am I to tell them that the thing they are curious about, they can't have?

And, it turns out, they have a plan. Sometimes it involves coloring whatever I've drawn. Often it's tracing the lines, then adding their own details. And they'll even take it away and then draw their own version. See? They've taken what I did, and interpreted it in all sorts of ways.

And, you can't overestimate how many brain cells are firing off when they are sitting, or standing, or half-sitting on my lap (try holding a pencil with all this!) and watching every line I make. You can practically see things zapping around behind their eyes.

They say that stories are a flight-simulator for the brain, that when someone hears a story the same parts of their brain light up as if they were having the actual experience. Actually I read this in "Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath.

Watching someone draw I think has a similar effect. The drawing part of the brain is following that pen around, trying out the lines.

Then, kids have this great ability to go do something that fits their own abilities, which is why tracing and coloring are so great. They engage with the drawing in a way that makes sense to them. I'm not there to make them all draw a perfect monkey freehand. But they know what they are ready for. We don't need no stinkin' overbaked curriculum hoo-ha.

So, I should just shut up and draw the unicorn. Or Storm Trooper. Or whatever.

Yet again, I'm the one who's learning here.