“The Suffocation of Arts Education” – Presentation
Content
My Opening Statement:
“I believe that secondary school arts education stifles creativity, undermines talent and discourages expression. Instead it feels students through a formalistic system whereby academic strength and ability to imitate gets you the grade, thus churning out clones of unoriginal and uninspiring artwork.”
My presentation explored the issue of the effectiveness of current secondary school art education. I chose this topic because my own experience of art education was unsatisfactory, and it seems like i’m not alone…
Through researching the views of others, and the history of arts education I formed an argument whereby I suggested that the ineffectiveness of arts education may be down to the fact that our education system as we know it today came into effect in the 1800s in order to meet the needs of industrialism, and although times have changed dramatically, our attitudes and education system hasn’t, therefore it is outdated and needs dramatically rethinking. I argued that rather than it being a failure of the teachers, its is a failure of the syllabus in which teachers are confined.
I particularly inspired by a talk that Ken Robinson gave at a TED conference in 2006:
Ken Robinson “How Schools Kill Creativity”
To support my argument I showed examples of artwork made my primary school children and artwork made by secondary school children, hoping that the difference was clear. The work of the primary school children was far more imaginative, free thinking and diverse, yet the work of the secondary school children was unoriginal and uninspiring.
I then made suggestions of how I think we can begin to change things, and what the art syllabus should look like in my opinion.
“Children need to learn about contemporary creatives (not just fine artists) living and working today. They need current, accessible and tangible figures to aspire to rather than artists that died years ago. We need to stop teaching art as a linear and confined process that requires the ability to annotate and understand the work of others in order to get marks. Instead children should be free to explore in all directions in their own time, expressing their ideas in any way they want, on their own journey to discover where their talents lie, facilitated, encouraged and inspired by teachers and professionals.”
Obviously this is such a broad and multilayered subject, and of course there is no easy answer, but I hope that I got my views across clearly and succinctly, and I inspired some thought and interest in others.
Response
A good counter argument was raised by Zoe which was I can only talk from my only experience of secondary school arts education, and just because I had a negative experience, it doesn’t mean that all experiences are negative. I recognised and agreed with this view, and then argued in response that even if other people had good experiences, and enjoyed the teaching of art in their school, the problem comes down to the limitations and outdated attitudes of the system, and the teachers, no matter how good they are, are still confined by the system and the syllabus.
I then told the group about ‘Room 13’ a project which I believe is approaching arts education in an incredibly positive way:
I also received a message from Zoe that said:
“With so much work to do I can see how teachers would stick to lesson plans they have tried and tested. There are no text books to work from for art teachers. Do you have an idea of getting art teachers the help they might need?”
My response to this would be that I believe that in order to maximise support for art teachers, art industry professionals should be brought in regularly to schools for input (sessions / talks / workshops) in order to inspire the children, give them a broad understanding of the diverse possibilities in the art world, introduce them to different mediums, techniques, processes and also to give the teacher more assistance.
In response to my presentation James sent me this message:
I found this news report extremely interesting, it highlights that children enjoy learning by actively getting involved in a process rather than researching it or just being told about it – which is something that schools need to work on. The report also states that ‘The arts are a way of enriching a child’s education’ I disagree with this. I believe that the arts IS education, just as much as literacy and numeracy is – it’s not just enrichment, its part of the fundamental body of education. Successful and reputable careers can be forged directly from the arts, WHY IS THIS NOT BEING RECOGNISED!??
Reflection
Upon reflection, I think that if I were to do the presentation again I would choose a more specific and contained issue in the arts – Choosing such a broad subject makes it hard to form a solid opinion because there are so many factors to consider. However I enjoyed having a rant, and learning a little more about arts education, and in the future I sincerely still hope that is art syllabus, is completely reconsidered and changed according to the world we live in today rather than 100 years ago.
A really interesting presentation & it’s great to see how other people have contributed to your argument during the Q&A section & beyond!