Saturday, April 19, 2014

Art as expression of our unique humanity

"It is through music and art and theatre and dance, all the things that are marginalized that we express our own unique individual humanity, not just doing them but learning about them, learning about other cultures through them....the arts should be at the centre of this, not instead of, but foursquare alongside the humanities, and the sciences and physical education"

Sir Kenneth Robinson is an English author, speaker, and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education, and arts bodies. He has suggested that to engage and succeed, education has to develop on three fronts. First, that it should foster diversity by offering a broad curriculum and encourage individualization of the learning process; Secondly, it should foster curiosity through creative teaching, which depends on high quality teacher training and development; And finally, it should focus on awakening creativity through alternative didactic processes that puts less emphasis on standardized testing thereby giving the responsibility for defining the course of education to individual schools and teachers. He believes that much of the present education system in the United States fosters conformity, compliance, and standardization rather than creative approaches to learning. Robinson emphasizes that we can only succeed if we recognize that education is an organic system, not a mechanical one. Successful school administration is a matter of fostering a helpful climate rather than "command and control"
(from wikipedia)

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