Why Do Children Make Coats of Arms?

The author analyzes the tendency of teenage children (13—15 years old) to independently create coats of arms. Schoolchildren received an optional task - to make a coat of arms of a family, class, school, city, usually without any information or methodological support. The work involved a conversation about the rules of heraldry; familiarity with examples of coat of arms creation; presentation of projects by authors and their collective discussion. The difference in the technical skill of the performers made it difficult to assess the actual heraldic merits. A total of 31 draft coats of arms were analyzed. In the course of the work, features of the perception of coats of arms by their young compilers emerged — such as the manifestation of age-related psychological characteristics, and such trends in changes in the worldview of modern schoolchildren. Everything included in the coat of arms was interpreted and motivated through the prism of a purely individual perception. Characterized by an orientation towards originality of visual content and extreme specificity. The most common starting point in drawing up a coat of arms was the interests and hobbies of the author, the professions of parents and relatives, family realities — household members, favorite cups. pets. A number of projects were created on the basis of generalized images of family, home and love. Among the coats of arms created by children, vowels are rare — no more than 20 %. An unexpectedly large number of projects were drawn up within the framework of heraldic logic. The experiment showed that knowledge of family history extends no further than grandparents. He also showed that heraldic creativity (even within the framework of elective classes) has great potential for initiating interest in heraldic knowledge among schoolchildren.