Dr Kerryn Palmer is a theatre practitioner who has worked as an arts educator for 30 years.
OPINION: One of the most consistent and enduring challenges I face as a long-time arts educator is how to convince people that the arts have deep and immeasurable value to society.
Educating through the arts teaches core skills and competencies in a way that is organic and visceral. An arts-based education embodies the values of kanohi ki te kanohi (the seen face/face to face/fronting up) which ensures that relationships, communication, empathy and humanity are developed. Not only is studying through the arts a proven way to strengthen your ‘soft (life!) skills’ such as; communication, leadership, problem-solving, work ethic, time management, and interpersonal skills, further competencies such as collaboration, creativity, resilience, critical thinking, and courage are strengthened through an arts-rich education
Recently I attended a function at Parliament with arts minister Paul Goldsmith who said: “It is so important that we expose children to all areas of the arts”. The next day Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said, “schools could defer arts and music curriculum in favour of maths and reading” and followed it up by saying, “We are requiring schools to spend more time teaching the basics – reading, writing and maths. Those are the must-haves. … If spending more time on numeracy and literacy means less time on the nice-to-haves like music and arts, so be it.”
With arts educators all around the motu banging their heads against brick walls in frustration, I was compelled to question if anyone making these decisions had actually read anything about how music and the arts raise educational achievement across all curriculum areas. There are thousands of studies to pick from, and overwhelming evidence that states that arts and music are not “nice to haves” but excellent methods to teach numeracy and literacy as well as being essential to the well-being and health of young people.
Another well documented fact is that students that are engaged, stimulated and enjoy school, are more likely to attend. The Government constantly states that it wishes to increase attendance rates in schools and yet seems confused about how to actually do so.
Twenty years ago the arts were stripped back in favour of STEM subjects in core education. The irony is that this was an attempt to raise the numeracy and literacy rates in children and yet (unsurprisingly for arts educators), we find ourselves with worse literacy and numeracy rates than ever. Which suggests that this method doesn’t work. Increasing “structured maths” and forcing teachers to adhere to strict guidelines around “the basics” is a simplistic blunt tool which is unlikely to raise literacy and numeracy rates and arguably will worsen school attendance, child hauora/health, and community engagement.
All elements in the curriculum are important – none are “nice to haves” and they are not mutually exclusive. As Professor Peter O’Connor stated recently, research demonstrates that you can have a literacy and numeracy focus and retain the vibrancy of the arts, science and social studies. International and national evidence also shows that rich broad curricula deliver the best learning results. And while the prime minister doesn’t appear to care much for the arts, he should be alerted to the evidence that children in arts-rich schools do better in literacy and numeracy.
Maybe we need to try something radical. Maybe we need an education system where the arts are the heart of our education system. Where young people are consistently taught in an arts-rich way that increases literacy and numeracy, makes them more resilient, able to empathise, think critically, communicate, work well in a team and have courage in this ever-changing world.
A place to start would be for this Government – rather than rushing to enforce more underdeveloped and unresearched policies on to exhausted teachers – to extensively and genuinely collaborate with educators and arts experts and creatively and courageously create education policies that will have long lasting, positive change for all young people in Aotearoa.
Published with the permission from Dr Kerryn Palmer
Source: Arts and music are essential, not nice to haves – The Post