I love working with children and every so often I get the opportunity to do workshops. Last weekend I was in Perth making Christmas cards with kids that have an expanding, concertina section, this Santa's beard was my favourite.
Many delightful cards were made, what was frightening to me was the lack of knowledge and skills. After 10 years of austerity in Britain; art, music and drama teaching has been cut to extinction in many primary and secondary schools.
Most of the children yesterday didn't know how to make a snowflake, couldn't do the cutting . . . they would have been able to before. We are losing eye-hand coordination, fine and gross motor skills, not to mention confidence, imagination, design, colour theory etc.
It is criminal what we have lost from the primary development stages of education, the effects will be felt for generations, already it is reported that trainee doctors are lacking the coordination and fine motor skills required for surgery that they would have got from doing art and craft as children in the past. New generation do not have the skills or knowledge to teach art and craft and classroom management of (often) 30 pupils doing art and craft is terrifying to them. People do not realise what they have lost, these so called soft subjects that have been dismissed as of no value have powerful qualities that seep into the hands, minds and souls and build a culturally strong, able population.
I couldn't agree more Hazel. I've just retired from Primary teaching, having been fortunate for the last few years to have taught just Art as a specialist. However, my subject was very much a Cinderella one that was used to cover PPA. The teachers therefore never had the opportunity to learn the skills and practices that they will surely need in schools that aren't as enlightened as the one we've all just left. In my experience Art gets shoved to the outsides when, as you say, it should really be front and centre, especially in the early years. Unfortunately in the current educational climate I see little opportunity for enthusiasm.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experiences. I know these problems to be rampant in the US as well. I’m glad you have the opportunity to do workshops with some, and I hope others do too.
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