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Starting the baby early on Humanities 2

Before my son was born, I dreamt that he and his cousin, Gabriel, were looking at a book of artwork and discussing the Mona Lisa. The line of discussion was what I have learned in Humanities 2, a course on art appreciation taught by Prof. Paul Zafaralla during my time. One of the two babies talked about the contrasts in colours all over the painting, Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile, and Mona Lisa's angle from the painter. The other baby talked about interpretations of these elements, the symbolism of the hand position, and an overall evaluation of the painting. I was amazed at how knowledgeable the two babies were in my dream.

Then I woke up. 

Months after my son was born, I was looking at Crate&Kids and found a book by Sabrina Hahn entitled "ABCs of Art". I eventually bought it and found out, while leafing through the book, that the Mona Lisa is featured in it. I didn't think much about this until my son started flipping the book to the page containing the photo of this mysterious painting. 

Was he closely inspecting the Mona Lisa? 

I guess he got tired of the painting after a few days because he started gravitating towards a painting of a dog. He's still stuck on the dog painting as of this writing.

The dream will probably become a reality someday; but not today.


The "ABCs of Art" was such a hit that I decided to buy a second book by the same author. This time, I bought "123s of Art", a book that encourages children to count. My son has not gravitated towards a painting in this book just yet. 



I hope that through exposure to pieces of art, my son will develop his own tastes. Maybe, he'll learn to appreciate modern art (which I still have not appreciated). Maybe, he'll wonder at how Michelangelo managed to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

In the meantime, I'm already happy that he has taken interest in the text accompanying the artwork. He's been pointing at the letters and the numbers as if he can read them.


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