The Arts Within A National State Curriculum

- by Peter Smith

Biography of Peter Smith

Peter has had a lifelong involvement with the arts as artist, craftsman, educator, writer, critic and commentator. He was the writer for the J1-F7 Art Syllabus committee, and was fully involved in the development of senior secondary school art prescriptions. A member of the first team of Education Department art advisers established by Gordon Tovey in 1946, he was subsequently Principal Lecturer, Secondary Teachers College, Auckland, a Senior Inspector of Secondary Schools, assistant to the Superintendent of Education, Northern Region, and a Principal of Auckland College of Education until retirement in 1990. He was chair of the Northern Regional Arts Council and a member of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council until its disbandment. Today he concentrates on painting, and sailing the 10.6 meter yacht he designed and built.

A: The Survival Model: a simplistic assessment of how humankind survives

1: "Physical" Survival:

We need food, shelter, clothing and safety for our physical survival. In a social setting (family, tribe, group etc.) we need means of communication. The history of the provision of these is of evolving and increasingly complex procedures and techniques for hunting, agriculture, preparation, presentation and preservation of food, shelter and buildings construction, fabric and clothing manufacture, defence and safety from attack, accident and illness etc. Each of these has attached and often shared technologies such as means of transport, tool, machine and utensil making, communication techniques and recording devices, child bearing and raising procedures, work procedures and the educations appropriate to them.

As a result we make. We have made, and continue to make an endless array of things - artefacts, languages, chants, coordinated movements - which enable and facilitate our physical survival.

2: "Mental" Survival:

We question where we come from, why we exist, who we are, where we are going. We seek explanations to the phenomena of the world. Why is day? Why is night? What is thunder? What is the sun?

Again, we make. We make explanations, theories, rationalisations, hypotheses, guesses, suppositions and we categorise these under such various headings as: religions, philosophies, sciences, mathematics, geographies, histories.

We make songs, chants, dramatisations, depictions, illustrations, symbolic forms and dances to convey and educate our societies about belief systems, histories, mythologies and genealogies.

We make tools, objects, instruments, and devices which facilitate enquiry, which enhance ritual or ceremony, which record events and histories, which enable communication and interaction, or which express attitudes, beliefs, feelings and emotions. We make sextants to measure the sun's declination, churches as centres for worship, hei tiki to denote origins, books to safeguard and distribute knowledge, instruments to make audible our music.

We make countless things, some physical and visible, some which are of movement and time, some which are audible, which contribute to or assist our understanding of ourselves and our world.

3. Interaction:

There is no tidy line between so-called physical and mental survival. The vessel made from gourd, glass or clay which enables us to carry and consume liquids can be given special status when it is used to serve a chief or king, or is an instrument of religious ritual, such as a Christian chalice. It may be embellished, or decorated or made from precious materials, or by a skilled artisan, to enhance its status.

The building which gives us shelter from the elements may be so constructed and embellished as to make it a fitting place in which the tribe can gather, the ceremony be conducted, or the event performed. The staff upon which the kaumatua leans may also be carved so as to mark his status and identify his ancestry. The costume or dress which keeps us warm will also meet our conceptions of modesty,or fit the occasion, or match our occupation, or enhance our personality.

The chant which provides the rhythm for the canoe paddlers, or the weavers, or the harvesters can be enhanced and refined as a fertility invocation, or a tribute to a patron, king or goddess. The steps and moves of the hunters or warriors or seed planters can be similarly ritualised and given special significance in initiations, births , funerals, dedications or installations. The spoken word of everyday communication can similarly be shaped and given emphasis to form the poem or play for special occasion, ceremony, education and entertainment.

4. Art, artefact, instrument or tool?:

Individuals and societies classify the forms and objects they make under various headings. The sextant or microscope or spectrographic analyser, objects which enable enquiry into the nature of the physical world, may be labeled as "scientific instruments", (although sometimes with age they become "curiosities", "antiques" or even "works of art"). The building of distinctive character may be classified as "architecture", but not the corrugated iron garage. The shepherd's whistle may not be classified as "music", even though it uses a repeated melodic sequence that may occur in a piece of music. The passing of the ball from a rugby scrum to a fluid backline may not be called "dance" , although the performers are executing a series of controlled bodily movements within a time frame.

Objects which have a similar function and may have a similar appearance may be classified differently within different societies. Indo-European society may classify certain orders of painted or carved forms "art". Maori made and make objects with the same appearances and functions, but , it seems, have no specific word for "art".

Contemporary Western society has discriminated between certain categories of objects, events or performances on the basis of applied function, ownership, or place. Certain forms may be "art" in the context of an art gallery or opera house or social milieu. In other contexts they may be "posters", "graphic design", or "advertising jingle" or "graffiti". The same object or form can have a changed classification when it is moved or used in a new context. Similarly, "orders of value" may be placed upon plays, dances, writings, paintings and sculptures. Thus we have such classifications as "fine", "applied", "folk", "kitsch" and "popular' art, music, drama and dance.

It is worth noting that historically we have tended to classify, to comment upon, record, and preserve the arts of the upper classes, nobility, or the religious hierarchy to the exclusion of the art of everyday life and work. Thus "high culture" art has tended to dominate historically and today, and is frequently seen to be "superior". There are obvious educational implications.

Similarly, within Western European derived cultures, with the breakdown of social orders and mono-religious dominance, the function of the arts has increasingly been seen as limited to entertainment and decoration, and its symbolic and ritualistic purposes have declined or been lost sight of. Thus there is a significantly different interpretation of the place of arts for Maori and Pakeha.

What we make we will classify and value in different ways at different times in different societies. There are no fixed and universal definitions. Each society formulates its own definitions according to its valuing systems. Thus cultures may and usually do have as part of their structure a "social construct" such as "art"; a system of manufacture, distribution, ownership and valuing of "art objects".

B: The characteristics of the arts: similarities and differences.

1. Arts and Sciences:

For various reasons, there has been a tendency in our time to see a marked difference between arts and sciences, particularly the physical sciences, to the extent of seeing them as virtual and unconnected opposites. Accompanying this and perhaps contributing to the severance, are the philosophical and psychological ideas of separation of intellect, reason and spirit. We cannot ignore the impact on Christianity and Western thought, for example, of Platonic theory of superiority of intellect and reason, which must guide and subdue emotion and passion. This has promoted a superficial but dangerously pervasive view, endorsed often by education systems, that the "sciences" deal with facts, work on the basis of reasoned enquiry and logical analysis, and are the major contributors to our advancement, particularly in technological terms. The "arts" by contrast are seen as products and responses to feelings and emotions, as individualistic and idiosyncratic in creation, as incapable of finite or corporate definition or assessment, and as an unimportant if not suspect realm of "expression" and "entertainment", not essential for daily life nor contributing to our progress in the world.

A more useful, and in the end defensible interpretation is that arts and sciences are both ways in which we explore, explain and comment upon our world, its phenomena, and our positions in it. There is, in fact, little difference between so-called "scientific" methods of enquiry and "creativity" in the arts. Both start with curiosity. Both begin to formulate "ideas" or "hypotheses" about the subject matter of our curiosity. Both have to search ("research") for information which will help clarify the problem or help to define parameters for the enquiry. Both will arrive at tentative solutions ("theories"). Both will set out to test these solutions, and both will recognise that any solution arrived at will only prevail or be accepted as having validity until it is supplanted, altered or contested by another solution.

Both will, moreover and most importantly, recognise that so-called "facts" are the raw material for enquiry.

It is not contested that sciences and arts will have differences in the areas upon which they focus, in their methods of enquiry , and in the shape or form of their outcomes, e. g. a scientific theory or a musical composition. Thus in the physical sciences, botany may limit itself to enquiry in the plant world (although it will use techniques of other sciences in its methods of enquiry). Psychology may focus upon human behaviour, as it can be observed and characterised beyond individual instance. Drama may explore a particular set of human relationships, and make commentary upon them, commentary which may confine itself to that particular situation but within which audiences may "read" parallels or messages applicable to their own experiences and circumstances.

2. Similarity and difference within the arts:

Whilst there are similarities of purpose shared by the various art forms, there are also distinctive differences between them.

The similarities are in the field of enquiry or speculation. One might say the art forms focus upon the ways in which we as human beings, see, relate to, consider and comment upon our "human condition" - our relationships and perceptions of ourselves and one another, the material world we inhabit, the emotional territories we sense, and the belief systems we inherit or adhere to. The outcomes, whether paintings, carvings, dances, plays, poems or narratives, are individual statements or commentaries, and they are not necessarily subjected to universal validation before they are presented. (There will be something akin to universal validation in terms of spectator or audience response. We generally consider that an object, event or performance has not become part of the social construct of art until it is "public".

The differences, broadly speaking, are in means, forms and techniques of enquiry and presentation, on the one hand, and in dimension on the other.

Music employs sound and silence, but also sequence - a dimension of time.

Sculpture employs space and substance but has traditionally been thought of as static, although light which is the instrument "revealing" sculpture involves time and change.

Painting is the alteration of a two-dimensional plane (the surface upon which the painter works) by the imposition of line and colour. Like sculpture, the only "time" element is passage of light.

Poetry utilises words in sequence to create audible pattern.

Dance employs body motion in space, again a time/space sequence

Drama employs characterisation (the actor is not himself / herself) in a time sequence, and most often in a setting (which is not the actual space of performance).

All will employ in particular ways such other devices as rhythm, repetition, sequence, rhyme, pitch, tone, texture, colour, tempo, and structural devices such as tension, balance, harmony, dissonance, climax, etc. (The arts may appear to use such devices in common but there are in fact quite particular dimensions, usages, and interpretations of them within each art form. Although painting and sculpture may be classified as "visual arts" they employ discrete devices. A sculptor cannot necessarily interchange roles with a painter, not only in terms of technical devices and tools but in conceptual terms also.)

These differences between the art forms represent some differences also in the kinds of explorations and statements that they most effectively deal with. The communicative nature of words and languages, and the nuances and subtlety of meanings they can convey, permits poetry and prose to contemplate and explore, move from past through present to future, from first to third person, in a diversity of voices. This is a flexibility and a time-based frame of reference which is not so available to painting, for example, and this affects the kinds of situations and subject matter explored.

The possibility of direct reference or incorporation of things seen into painting and sculpture provides a descriptive and referential mode which is not so much available to music. (Although there are examples of "descriptive" or "narrative" music, it tends, like mathematics, to the abstract; the composition ( of sounds and silences) can exist without reference to the rest of the physical and mental world. It is its own subject matter.)

If painting can provide a "stable" image to which we can return as often as we wish, the dance by its very nature is a passing of time whose totality can only be held in or by the mind.

The significant differences between the art forms means that one is not and cannot be an equivalent or substitute for another. Nor can the knowledge of how to make or apprehend one art form be applied to another. Nor is there some form of embracing "aesthetic" outcome from the study of a particular art form which will provide us with a means of assessment or judgment about other art forms we may encounter. There can be no "arts" education as a result of the study of only one or two of the art forms. The same is of course true of the "sciences".

C: Education and the arts:

1: The education of artists

All societies have set up systems of education and training of their musicians, poets, writers, dancers, craftspeople, painters and sculptors. These educations have traditionally been "formal" and often highly controlled and protected e.g. the Maori schools of carving, the European masonic tradition etc. Within such schools the purposes and the forms of the particular art form e.g. carving were already prescribed and fixed by the canons of the society. Invention or creation of "new" art forms was neither expected nor promoted. New forms were the product of the skill and insight of a "master" whose level of knowledge and status within his society permitted him to explore variations on the established themes.

The educational focus was upon understanding the significance and purpose of particular art forms and their symbols, structures and compositional elements, and upon practicing the skills and techniques required.

In contemporary society the education of artists has put substantial emphasis upon the making or creation of "original" works, to the extent that mere repetition and plagiarism may be deplored. This shift is a response to major social, economic and philosophical shifts within Western-derived societies, which have seen the breakdown of religious uniformity and class systems, growth of industrialisation and shifts in the organisation and definition of work, and the postulation of the rights of the individual.

"Modern" movements in the arts have frequently been built around concepts of individual freedom, freedom of expression, rejection of tradition, and the necessity of the creative spirit. This shift is exemplified in New Zealand by the debates and controversies that have arisen between protagonists of "traditional" and "contemporary" Maori art.

However, whatever the rationale for an education of artists, such educations must be distinguished from "arts" education for the population at large, i.e. the incorporation of "arts" as a component of a national state education.

2. Arts education for all

There are a variety of arguments advanced for general education in the arts.

a. The arts are an intrinsic part of the total culture of a society, and the means of conveying essential understandings about the belief systems, the histories, genealogies, myths and legends, and the commentaries and interpretations that have been and are being made about people and events. ("Fiction is our only access to reality.")

Therefore it is essential that all members of a society are given access to and have an appropriate education in the arts.

This rationale is in effect for an education about the art systems and practices of a society, and might not necessarily involve students in the making or composing of art objects and forms or in performance other than as a device for finding out about the arts. It is the rationale which has been in the past adopted in respect of Maori art, i.e. knowledge about Maori art is seen as an important way of introducing both Maori and Pakeha children to Maori culture, within the policies of bi-culturalism.

This rationale for the arts in general education allies directly with the curriculum objectives of Social Studies, Technology, and Health and Physical Education

b. The arts are a fundamental source of response to and expression of the ideas, imaginings, emotions and feelings of all individuals , and have particular validity as a creative and expressive outlet for children. This rationale does not focus upon the societal significance and structures of art but upon individual participation in creative art making . The "process" of making or performing art works is often seen as more significant than the outcome or "product". Some argue that involvement in the process of creating art works enhances the creative confidence and capacity of all students in all fields of learning. In this sense, art is seen as a means of facilitating general education . It is exemplified in the " education through art" concept promulgated by Herbert Read and based substantially on Jungian and Freudian psychological theory.

Essentially, proponents of this approach consider that every child can and will formulate a set of visual symbols by means of which he or she will be able to "make sense of" their world, without recourse to learned skills of language or the "adult" skills of artists. Imposition of adult skills will confuse and inhibit the "natural" expressive powers of the child. From this view has arisen the concept of "child art".

This view is in contrast with an underlying assumption by most other arts that some form of learned skill base will be a necessary tool for creative and expressive involvement e.g. the learning of reading and writing, musical notation, etc. .

This rationale argues that all people need and deserve an education which enhances their creative and expressive powers and confidence and promotes the full flowering of individual personality.

c. The arts are a fundamental and significant dimension of human life, work and understanding. Therefore, every child must be given access to all the arts so that they can discover and explore their potential , both for the personal and lifelong satisfactions and fulfillment that the practice of an art can provide and for the employment opportunities that may be available.

This rationale is, of course, common to most curriculum areas - the notion that all people are entitled to an education which can reveal and enhance their particular abilities.

It is worth noting, however, that there is a widely held view that the arts are mostly concerned with entertainment and recreation - the "hobbyist" concept - except for the very few highly talented actors, musicians, dancers, painters or sculptors who may eke out a living from them. This view, that the arts are an inessential adornment to life after "work", has profoundly affected the position of the arts in the curriculum hierarchy. This stance in large part reflects a public perception that arts in a curriculum context signifies the so-called "high culture" arts dimension, a dimension of limited popular appeal or participation. It is reinforced by the "academic" hierarchies. It is only comparatively recently that the arts were subjects for examination at senior secondary / external examination level, and were available for study at New Zealand universities.

A more rigorous and dispassionate analysis of the roles and functions of the arts in contemporary society reveals that they are a substantial area of employment. They are intrinsic to modern communication systems and technologies, to the vast domain of product design, graphic design and advertising, to textile, fashion , and interior decoration, to architecture and environmental design, and to the entertainment industry.

In this context it can be argued that they are as significant an area of preparatory education as the sciences, but the more productive view is to see the sciences and arts as complementary.

This rationale argues that the arts are an important area of occupation and involvement, and that all people are entitled to discover and develop their potential within them.

d. The arts play an important role in community, group, tribal and societal interaction. They are a significant means by which a community ethos can be developed and expressed. This argument links closely with (a) above, but adds to it the dimension of active participation in the arts, rather than passive learning about the arts. There are some apparent contradictions within this concept. Some would maintain that education must focus upon individual growth and development - the "child-centred" stance. This view is reinforced by the 20th century Western promotion of the individual and unique art work. Others argue that every student as a member of society needs to learn to work co-operatively towards common goals, a view epitomised by such as the Maori in their communal responsibility for the building and maintenance of a meeting house. These views are not incompatible.

(It might be noted, however, that the art forms could be seen to differ in their focus upon individual as compared with group interaction e.g. "individualistic" visual artists c/f co-operative interaction in dance, music and drama.)

This rationale sees the arts as an important means of reinforcing communal identity.

e. The arts are a significant therapeutic agency. The nature of the arts is such that individuals and groups, by participation in them, can find release and opportunity for expression and readjustment of psyche which has not been possible through the formal conventions of language.

The field of art therapy is a specialised one, and in the view of the writer, requires expert management. While benefits may be obtained by participation in the arts, therapy is not the province of general education.

f. The arts contribute to the development of aesthetic understanding. Through participation in the arts, students will develop discernment, be able to distinguish what is of quality, and make sound judgments about things in the world about them.

Although the term "aesthetics" occurs quite frequently in the literature of arts education, it would appear to be used largely as a synonym for "artistic" or for "beauty". Aesthetics is, more properly, that branch of philosophy which enquires into the nature and basis of judgments and the definition of difference. Thus, aesthetics is not confined to the realm of the arts, although the arts appear to have taken possession of the term.

Those who argue for "aesthetics education" would appear to be proposing educations in "taste" i.e. for a public educated to approve of what is defined as art of quality.

Although arts education might legitimately seek to acquaint students with the range and variety of art forms, and the contexts within which they were made, composed or performed, attempts to teach "finite" value systems related to them would appear to be on treacherous ground. On the other hand, contextual studies which provide information about the valuing systems which societies employ in respect of art occupy a position in curriculum parallel to, say, social studies programmes which inform about different and changing social values.

The rationale for aesthetic education would appear to rest on the proposal that there is advantage in being able to distinguish what is of quality

Summary:

The above arguments for the inclusion of the arts in a compulsory state general education claim that:

The arts are an intrinsic and significant dimension of the life of all societies, and provide insight and knowledge of our inheritance, our traditions, and our place in the contemporary world. Study of the arts will foster a sense of personal and communal identity, and appreciation and respect for ones own and other cultures and societies.

The arts are an important avenue available to all people for the expression of feelings, beliefs and emotions. Study of them enhances creativity and promotes personal growth.

The arts provide a substantial area of recreational and employment opportunity. All people must have an opportunity to explore their potential within the arts.

Participation in the arts can enhance group, community, or tribal membership and participation.

Participation in the arts can provide therapeutic benefit.

Study of the arts can promote aesthetic sensibility.

3. The place of the four art disciplines within an arts curriculum.

It is argued above that each of the four arts disciplines contributes in its own particular way, and it follows that education in one art form does not provide or constitute an education in any of the others. Each makes claim for its significant role within society and therefore within a society's education system. Given that each of the four contains within it particular and differentiated components ( e.g. Painting , sculpture, craft and design within visual arts) the totality in curriculum substance or content that is under consideration is formidable.

How, therefore, can a fair and reasonable decision be reached regarding the proportional emphasis given the four disciplines?

It appears doubtful that any useful progress can be made by argument of the intrinsic worth of one against another., and experience tells us that the worth of what is learned in each depends substantially upon the quality of teaching, whatever the curriculum requirement.

There are factors which help to determine the current relative position (not importance!) of each in New Zealand society and within the schooling system. (The relative positions can and do change over time.)

There are factors which help to determine the current relative position (not importance!) of each in New Zealand society and within the schooling system. (The relative positions can and do change over time.)

a. In terms of breadth of impact the spectrum of the visual arts affects all aspects of daily life. Our physical environment is increasingly dominated by things we make - buildings, roadways, tools, appliances, publications, dress, etc. all of which are subject to design. Our social/spiritual/community environment is also substantially affected by the images we create and which surround us. An evaluation of the contribution of visual arts education must incorporate these dimensions of practice as much as "high culture" art. It may be argued that much of this is the province of the technology curriculum. However, while there are obviously shared dimensions, technology is properly concerned with how we do things, and less upon the creative, inventive, imaginative processes which lie behind art and design.

b. While the contribution of music education to our understanding, involvement in and appreciation of our cultural, social and spiritual inheritance and environment can be equated with that of the visual arts, it may not appear to have the same degree of impact in terms of the "designed world". However if we extend the scope of music education to its contributions to the worlds of communication, theatre, advertising etc. in a cross-disciplines context the field enlarges.

c. Dance will make similar claims to its significance culturally and socially, and its cross disciplinary roles. It would appear, however, to have a substantially lesser "spread" in terms of public impact and effect. Proponents of dance may argue that this valid reason for improving and extending dance education, but this represents a complex argument in curriculum philosophy. We could note the United States emphasis upon science education when it was seen to lag behind Russia in the "space race", but we would need to be sure of an identifiable need and desired outcome from the promotion of dance education.

d. Drama,in all its forms and ramifications, has profound impact in all dimensions of life. (This is to see drama as extending in definition well beyond the traditional concepts of theatre.) What would appear to need careful analysis and definition is the specific contribution of drama as defined in an arts curriculum, given that it obviously has a substantial place within language curriculum.

Given that arts is one component of a seven part curriculum, the problem is exacerbated. The risks are that, on the one hand, attempts to give balanced provision of all four within a necessarily constrained time allocation will result in overall superficiality. On the other hand, to prescribe that only some components need be compulsory flies in the face of the argument that each art form has its particular character and educational contribution.

The most appropriate solution would appear to be to require each art form to specify and provide substantial argument for what are seen to be essential learning objectives. The writer is firmly of the view that specifications of time are not valid means of structuring school programmes. It is for schools to determine how, and under what circumstances, they can satisfactorily meet essential learning objectives, and for the Ministry and its agencies to determine whether the school has done so.

D: The status of a curriculum document

The National Curriculum Statement of the Ministry of Education is a legally binding document.

It has the important function of providing the schools, the boards of trustees, the managers and the teachers with a clear statement of what is to be taught and learned.

Obviously, the Statement must be couched in clear and unequivocal terms, admitting that within it there will be clarification of emphases and options where these are appropriate.

The language used must be accessible to all who have responsibility to deliver or oversee delivery of the curriculum.

That being said, all components, disciplines or strands of a curriculum will have their specific and particular terminologies and vocabularies. e.g within the Technology Statement we find the statement : "... a particular community of technological practice.".

The writer is concerned that some draft arts curriculum statements are seen by some teachers as using too complex terminology and not being "teacher friendly". An examination of the passages referred to indicates that they are using the appropriate and particular language of the arts. All generalist teachers have had in their time to study and learn the language and terminology of the subjects they teach, and in some instances when there have been substantial changes in the shape of a curriculum, this represented a real task for teachers. The introduction of "new maths" many years ago is a case in point.

New Zealand schooling patterns have meant that many generalist teachers will have had only the most superficial acquaintance with arts subjects during their own primary and secondary schooling, while most if not all will have made quite concentrated study of maths, social studies and sciences to fourth form level. Thus it is quite usual to encounter primary teacher trainees who have made little or no studies of music, dance, or the visual arts beyond primary level.

This has particular significance for the writers of the Arts Curriculum Statement. That statement must set out in clear terms the structure and objectives of arts education. To do so it will have to use the accepted languages of the arts. It is teachers' responsibility to familiarise themselves with that language, as they have had to do in respect of the specialised language of all other subjects.

Peter Smith

26 August 1998