Now I know we don't normally use our blog to spread the word of any really serious issues, but an email into my inbox this week was hard to ignore and it brought about my sad face.
So, what it means is that the next best thing the government has planned is to stop any arts education for children! It basically means that it will not be part of the curriculum and so therefore making the arts obsolete in schools.
I can't imagine what I would have done without taking my art and graphics GCSE and I know Sam feels the same, she even changed schools so that she could do just that. And this also means that Drama and performing arts are in just as much danger, where would we be without all the brilliant actresses and actors we have without their grass roots education?
For a country which once prided itself in being at the forefront of design and the arts, leading other countries to want to study and work here - we are now saying that teaching our children about the arts just isn't important! They are being told that the academic subjects - which of course are really important - are the only way to learn - which is of course not true. We each have a very different way of learning, whether it be visual, auditory or kinetic, so one size DOES NOT fit all - are you listening Mr Gove.
If children do not have a balanced and informative education then what chance do they have to be the next Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Hockney or Vivienne Westwood. We limit their options by making them hunt out for places they can take part in a different education. And lets face it schools are not for everyone anyway - I hated mine - but at least I had the opportunity to get lost in art and pottery, try my hand - and fail - at being in a play and sand down a piece of wood to within an inch of its life in woodwork all while trying to remember my maths equations and geography cloud formations.
Ok, so I work in a museum in education and so this is something which I guess I would feel passionately about. But I just think that children must be given the opportunity to explore as much as they can and not have their different paths limited for them - especially by people who are not their parents!
So please do read the article and do what you can if you feel just as passionately as me about it. I would hate their to be a world where the only education is one sided and relies on academic rather than experimentation skills.
Live it
H
