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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2017 13:06:53 GMT
I caught half a news report on the BBC News just now. Something about education budget cuts. The line I caught was.... "Next year we'll have to cut back, we'll be forced to cut courses like "Performing Arts". An A-Level in performing arts? Aside from the fact that I have two girls who'd teach them drama for free, *that's* what they think is an educational disaster? Its not even an "ology".
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Mar 10, 2017 15:30:33 GMT
If education for its own sake is good - and it is - then anything that reduces access to education is bad.
As for performing arts, many of the most impressive and engaging young graduates I've known and worked with have studied drama or similar, not necessarily as a main subject. The personal confidence and the skills in presenting and organizing that they get from it have applications in all sorts of areas, professional and otherwise.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2017 19:44:12 GMT
But an A-Level? Surely NVQ territory if ever there was one.
Why is there belief that perceived value can only come with a classroom based academic qualification?
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Mar 10, 2017 23:29:33 GMT
Would you argue the same for Music, or for Fine Art? Both established and legitimate subjects for academic study as well as the practical aspect.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2017 6:02:17 GMT
Reading the original post brought this to mind:
"My first son has a PHD in arts, my daughter has two degrees in communication and jornalism and my youngest son is a burglar." Friend: "Wow a burglar? You should kick him out!" Dad: "Nah... he is the only one who makes money"
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2017 21:47:54 GMT
I just wish government would come clean, state how much money they need to raise and then do it the simplest way possible without harming the economy. There are 30,000 pages of tax codes apparently. That must be 29,900 too many.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2017 18:04:36 GMT
I just wish government would come clean, state how much money they need to raise and then do it the simplest way possible without harming the economy. There are 30,000 pages of tax codes apparently. That must be 29,900 too many. That won't work as it means transparency and no means to fund pet projects. Governments talk transparency but they never mean it.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2017 19:53:36 GMT
Would you argue the same for Music, or for Fine Art? Both established and legitimate subjects for academic study as well as the practical aspect. I have delayed answering mostly because I didn't want to have a pointless or combative pissing contest so I took time to think about it. I might still talk shit but be flattered I took the time to try to make it not so. Fine Art and Music, at least in my limited experience, tend to involve a great deal of history, sociology, science and other matters. As such I think they do have some foundation in academic studies. Where they do not, they appear to me to have been specifically "art" classes, be that in music or art. "Performing arts" to me seems to be some wishy-washy excuse for keeping those kids not academically inclined in the educational environment, partly for their own comfort and partly for political motivations. I don't see it as having any basis in academia, nor any value in school-based academic teaching. Now, that is not to say that people should not do it, or should not be supported in doing it. *HOWEVER*, using the availability of a performing arts course as some kind of metric on the state of the local academic system seems wrong and inappropriate. I would liken it with the provision of a course in graffiti at the local youth centre. It should be supported by the community, but it is not part of the school academic system. I say this as the father of a child very much into Am Dram both front and back stage, and as an ex-director of Freeview and various other UK Broadcast organisations, so whilst I am no expert on the luvvie-stuffie, neither am I entirely ignorant.
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Post by bromptonaut on Mar 13, 2017 11:46:06 GMT
Seems to me that Otto has raised two points.
First of all we place far too much weight on classroom based academic qualification. Too damn right we do. The quality of our entire education system seems to be judged on performance in getting grades A* - C at GCSE. That is an exam which, if A-C has the value we expect, is going to be beyond a significant cohort of the population. One hopes the current talk of 'T levels' in technical and applied subjects will come to something. Experiance suggests they'll be lost in the rush to recreate Grammer Schools which play so well with right wing media.
I'm more optimistic than Otto about performing arts. Syllabuses suggest that, like music or art, it looks at history and technique and even the sociology of theatre/film. Many courses go beyond the stage performance itself and into lighting, sets, front of house etc etc. My daughter did part of her GCSE English as Drama and it certainly didn't lack intellectual content.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Mar 13, 2017 14:45:05 GMT
Experiance suggests they'll be lost in the rush to recreate Grammer Schools... ...and spelling schools? 😈
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Post by lygonos on Mar 14, 2017 0:53:04 GMT
I'd sooner see £5bn spent on enhancing school education and further education than it being plopped into hospitals.
Or Trident's replacement.
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Post by Alanović on Mar 14, 2017 7:18:51 GMT
Or a new Royal Yacht.
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Post by hobbit on Mar 14, 2017 14:21:43 GMT
Isn't there some Insurance company that proclaims it can stop Drama becoming a crisis?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2017 19:04:29 GMT
Commercial Union. Damn we're old.
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Post by Hofmeister on Mar 14, 2017 19:38:35 GMT
Commercial Union. Damn we're old. Remember GA too.
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