Visual Literacy: More Than A Frill

My favorite part was making my shark book, Jimmy's Pool. I like that we got to write and make art; usually you just get to do one or the other. My other favorite part was the snack—especially Jennifer's cookies!
- Jimmy Suarez, Age 13, Gorilla Kid

The current push for higher standards in the public schools is commendable. However, too often our obsession with tests, drills, and mastery leaves too little room for creativity, and results in literacy without literature. Leading Harvard education professor Howard Gardner (1988) has identified visual literacy as a key component of human knowledge that will become increasingly vital to success in the twenty-first century. Understanding and gaining fluency in the world of images is a key dimension of the learning process. Yet particularly for poor children, whose schools often cut out art programs, visual education is often viewed as little more than a frill.

The Gorilla Press weds writing and art-making. Professional artists and writers teach cartooning, drawing, painting, poetry writing, sculpture, animation, film making, and storytelling. Art is taught with the dignity and seriousness that it deserves, while simultaneously approached as a natural extension of a child's innate desire to play.