It has been said that the young child plays with materials and thereby learns them. The truth of this observation can nowhere be seen as clearly as in the field of the arts — picture-making, modelling, music and drama. (1)The first scribble of childhood with a well-sucked crayon will as surely lead to the making of recognizable shapes to represent ‘Mummy’ as will his early enthusiastic claps to the rhythm of nursery rhyme or popular song to the free-flowing steps of a yet unknown pop culture or the formal patterns of the traditional dance. There seems to be in all young children a desire to express themselves by making marks and constructions, by making sounds and through physical response to the sounds that they hear.

Indeed it could be argued that it is largely as a result of man’s preoccupation with these elements of his make-up that he has been able to dominate the world. From earliest time man has made marks to decorate the walls of his dwellings, has cut patterns into his tools, chiseled designs into stone, coloured his earthenware pots. His progress towards civilization has been marked by the ability he has shown in the adaptation of his environment — by building in stone, brick and wood, by spinning and weaving, by working in metal.

小さな子供は素材で遊び、そうすることでそれを学ぶのだと言われてきた。この意見の正しさは、絵画、模型製作、音楽、劇といった芸術の分野において、もっとも明確に現れる。(1)幼児期に舐めしゃぶったクレヨンで書いた最初の落書きが、『ママ』を表現した判別可能な形の描写へとつながっていくことは、小さい頃に童謡やポップスに合わせて夢中で手を叩くことが、未知のポップカルチャーの自由自在なステップや伝統舞踊の定型へとつながっていくのと同様に、明らかである。小さな子供は誰しも、印を書いたり組み立てたり、音を出したり聴こえた音に身体で反応したりして、自己を表現したいという欲求があるようだ。

実際、人類が世界を支配出来るようになったのは、主としてこうした作成という要素に没頭した結果であると論ずることができるかもしれない。人類は原始時代から、住まいの壁を飾るために印を描き、道具に模様を刻み、石に意匠を彫り、土器を彩色してきた。人類の文明への前進は、環境を転用すること（つまり石や煉瓦や木で建築し、糸を紡ぎ布を編み、金属を鋳造すること）において人類が示した能力によって、特徴付けられてきた。