Throughout my years of being a student, my favourite subject has always been art. Although I have academic qualities, my creative side always takes over, loving every art class since nursery to my degree. This is what made me want to be an art teacher, a job where I can teach other children to enjoy it just as much as me. As I am looking further into this dream, it's looking like it will be just that.... A dream.
The creative industry is now, collectively, the highest earner for the Uk, bringing billions to the economy every year, but the educational system seems to be overlooking this. Schools all around the country are following an old-aged tradition of focusing on academic studies and overlooking the importance of the arts.
Art has been acknowledged as a huge importance to the development of children from a young age, encouraging confidence, independence, creativity, to think out of the box and challenge constraints. Not only has art helped the development of children as they grow but is a great way to help mental issues, which is an issue growing year by year.
The times have changed so much within the last 100 years, culturally, socially, and technically, although the educational system seems to have stuck in the past in some areas. The creative industries are used for everything we use in our day-to-day lives like, advertising, packaging, newspapers, magazines, books, film , music etc. Without these things, our lives would be drastically different. So why does Britain overlook the importance of this subject in our schools?
I recently went to a class on how to get into teaching after finishing my degree, and it was here where it was more evident to me, the lack of enthusiasm there is for art in secondary education. As we were informed about the ins and outs of getting into the profession, he a produced a bursary list of all the PGCE courses. I knew Maths, Science and English would be at the top of the list, but I was shocked to find that art wasn't even on the list at all. Obviously bursaries do help when thinking about going into further education, but this was not why I was shocked, it was the total disregard of art as a subject.
I have spoke to quite a few people within the educational system, all of whom have given me advice of putting off teaching until the current curriculum has changed, all acknowledging that art courses in secondary education aren't a priority.
This being the subject that I have loved since a small child, it is upsetting to me why it has not been given more credit as important to child's studies. My worry is that my passion to be an art passion to be an art teacher, will in fact be a dream in the current state of education, but only drives me more to want to change this.
"Picasso once said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. I believe passionately that we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. We are educated out of it." - Ken Robinson.
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