WEBVTT

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Do you remember the first time that you
watched Bambi, I mean the old version

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of Bambi, or sat with a child on your
lap with a picture book with the most

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exquisite watercolor illustrations,
those soft greens, misty blues, the

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warm glow of a farmhouse, a dusk.

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Now think about what's on screen next time
you walk past a child watching something.

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Chances are it's loud,
it's bright, and it's fast.

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Characters are bouncing off the walls,
colors are screaming at you, and the

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scene changes before you've even had time.

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To realize what's just happened.

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There's something uncomfortable
about that comparison, isn't there?

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It is for me, and I don't think
that we should be brushing that off.

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Today

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I wanna talk about beauty, what
it does for children, what we've

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lost and what we can do about it.

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Because this isn't just about aesthetics,

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the research actually tells us
that there are real consequences

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for children's developing brains.

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We used to know how to make
things beautiful for children.

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Cast your mind back to the old shows.

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Now, some of you might be a
bit young for this, but you can

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always look these up on YouTube.

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We used to watch things like Heidi
and the Waltons, the Little House

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on the Prairie, even something
like the Teletubbies, right?

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And those early Disney films.

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The colors were warm and they were muted.

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The pacing was slow enough for a
child to actually feel something.

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The illustrations were gorgeous, hand
painted, carefully composed, full of

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detail that really rewarded a second look.

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. I recently saw a wonderful article
on Substack, which actually

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sparked this whole recording.

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It was called The Colors
of Childhood by Bahaus.

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Crayola and the History of the
Ugly Primary, and I want to

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encourage every parent and teacher
out there to go and read it.

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I'll leave a link for
you in the show notes,

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because it traces exactly how we
have arrived at this world of garish

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primary colors, dominating children's
spaces, products, and screens.

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And it made me think, and I, I
really hope it'll make you think too,

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the shift didn't happen overnight.

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But somewhere along the way, the
assumption took cold that children needed

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things to be louder, brighter, faster, to
hold their attention, and the children's

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media and product industry ran with it.

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And if you walk into most early
childhood classrooms today, you will

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find red chairs, yellow tables, blue
shelves and orange rug, all at full

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saturation, all competing with each
other, primary colors everywhere.

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And we've just accepted this
as normal as right, even.

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But is it what the research actually says?

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Let's start with screens.

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Because this is where things get serious.

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Now, a landmark study published in
Pediatrics, I'll leave a link for you

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in the show notes, found that just nine
minutes of watching a fast-paced cartoon

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was enough to significantly impair a
four year old's executive function.

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And the ability to focus.

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That's to regulate themselves, to remember
instructions and to solve problems.

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Compared to children who either watched
a slower education program or who

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simply just drew for the same amount
of time, nine minutes, that's nothing.

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The researchers also noted that it wasn't
just the pace, it's also the fantastical

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and unpredictable nature of a content.

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When a child's brain constantly
has to orientate itself to new

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and unexpected impossible events.

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It depletes cognitive resources.

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There's nothing left for the
task of actually thinking.

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Think about what Cocomelon's doing.

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The constant singing the scene
changes every few seconds.

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The hyper saturated colors,
the relentless, cheerful chaos.

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Compare that to Puffin Rock narrated
gently by Chris O'Dowd following

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real animals through the seasons.

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The contrast isn't subtle, and
here's the thing that concerns me

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most.

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Children who are regularly
overstimulated by fast-paced content

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find it increasingly hard to engage with
slower paced activities in the real world.

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Things like reading or completing
puzzles, or listening to the teacher.

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Their brain gets calibrated to expect
constant stimulation, and then everything

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else by comparison seems boring.

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Now, let's talk about color because
it's not just about screens,

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it's also about the rooms that
children are learning in too.

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Research conducted with preschoolers found
that playing on a colorful surface showed

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significantly more disruptive behaviors.

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Like frustration, difficulty
concentrating, dropping things,

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losing track of what they were
doing compared to children just

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playing on a plain white background.

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The researchers concluded that this
excess of bright contrasting hues was

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simply hijacking children's attention.

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Their brains simply
couldn't filter it out.

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A further study showed that children
in heavily decorated classrooms.

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Actually achieved lower scores than
children in more sparsely decorated ones.

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And that reminds me of looking
at classrooms in Finland.

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I've always noticed that they really are
undecorated, very sparsely decorated, and

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I wondered if that doesn't have something
to do with their high learning scores.

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Now, brain research also tells us
that using more than six colors in

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a classroom environment can distract
learners negatively and affect

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their ability to absorb information.

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And yet if you look at the average
early childhood classroom, I'm talking

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about the walls, the furniture, the
displays, uh, the rugs, the storage boxes.

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You'll count far more than six
competing colors before you've

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even reached the book corner.

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Soft.

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Blues and greens on the other hand
are consistently linked to reduced

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anxiety, better concentration,
and greater sense of calm.

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Gentle muted tones don't
fight for attention.

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They allow the attention to
settle somewhere meaningful.

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In classical education, we talk
about the true, the good and the

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beautiful as things worth pursuing.

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Not as luxuries, but as necessities
for a fully formed human being.

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Beauty is not frivolous.

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It's formative when a child spends their
day surrounded by beautiful things,

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gentle illustrations, natural materials,
thoughtful colors, stories told at

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a pace that allow them to breathe.

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Something.

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Is being cultivated in them, a
sense of what's worth attending to,

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a capacity for stillness.

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When we fill every surface and every
screen with noise and brightness and

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movement, we are not enriching children.

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We are overwhelming them, and over time
we may be making it harder for them to

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find the quiet things beautiful at all.

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It's worth talking about at home in
our classrooms and in our choices

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we make about what we put in front
of children every single day.

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If this has got you thinking, and I
hope it has, I'd love you to head over

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to Blooming Curious to the blog where
I've written an article on how to create

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inspiring indoor spaces for children.

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I'll leave a link for
you in the show notes.

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It comes also with a free download,
which allows you to think about

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how you set up your indoor spaces
for the children that you teach

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because our children deserve spaces
that are calm, that are considered,

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and that are genuinely beautiful.

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Let's start there.

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That's the only way actually
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That would be awesome if you could
do that and leave a review too.

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So until next week, take care
of yourself and be blooming.

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Curious.