This article introduces and explores the concept of the deficit aesthetic. Particular attention is given to how the deficit aesthetic was made and the extent to which it continues to be sustained in early art education, especially in the United States. For many children, particularly at this time, the deficit aesthetic factors as yet another lingering obstacle to negotiate, one that re-centers the assumption of childhood drawing as a neutral practice for a natural child. As an interpretive frame, the deficit aesthetic distorts the experience of drawing by disempowering the child, decontextualizing their drawing, and re-prioritizing white Western and middle-class subjectivities.