School portrait

The dominant philosophy which I took from my schooling was that school was preparation for the workforce (O’Toole, 2012a). The Arts were elective subjects and the realm of those who were ‘less’ academic (O’Toole, 2012b). These attitudes came as much from home as from school.

My education reflected Robinson’s (2006) hierarchy of subjects assertion were the most useful subjects for work are on top. Students are guided away from the Arts despite enjoying them which in turn can undermine their sense of personal value. E.g. ‘if what I value is not valued, then I am not valuable.’

Powell (1997) claims that the Arts are about saying ‘I’, which always comes with an inherent risk in self confidence, but the more confident we become in ourselves then the less afraid we are of sharing, offending and receiving criticism, so we want the ability to say ‘I.’

‘I’ connects with the ability to be wrong. Robinson (2006) explains that children are comfortable with being wrong, but our schooling stigmatizes mistakes, so students learn to take fewer risks. We are educated out of being creative.

The Arts encourage experimentation and play without immediate answers (Powell, 1997) or they encourage learning through trial and error. Students learn the capability of being wrong.

Zoe

Zoe I agree school is to prepare students for their working future, I believe the major focus is on Literacy and Numeracy (O’Toole, 2012a). Completing Art at school was and is encouraged but the importance is not really a focus. This conquers with what Zoe has mentioned from the clip by Robinson (2006) that the subjects in school are taught on a hierarchy basis, and this could result in Art getting pushed to the side.

I think now after working with children and especially children with special needs the place for Art needs to be considered. O’Toole (2012b) suggests Art is important and it should be implemented across all primary curriculum areas. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and reporting Authority (ACARA) (2014) states that incorporating Art into the school life of children will engage, inspire and enrich students’ lives through encouraging creativity allowing students to express themselves through a range of techniques. It has been said that you rarely have to spend a great deal of time motivating students to complete work they enjoy (O’Toole, 2012b). I believe the Arts should be included across all areas of learning, to motivate the students to learn and enhance the students’ knowledge and understanding. For example whilst I was on PE3 I was teaching a fractions unit, as a follow on task I got the students to complete a fraction picture. They were required to use half the amount of squares on the page and use their creativity to design the picture see below.        

                

             Leah