Attitude adjustment necessary

WE must shift our thinking about the Arts.

 

This is the view of visiting Principal from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Dr. Nicholeen DeGrasse-Johnson, as she delivered the featured address at the opening ceremony of the inaugural CSEC & CAPE Conference at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination (EBCCI) on Monday night.

 

Drawing from her own personal experiences in Jamaica back in the 1980s, she lamented that the Arts was not seen as a profession worth pursuing by many parents, neither was it given the necessary support in the school system.

 

“It is clear that all children need formal creative outlets and that the Arts – if effectively delivered – can assist in educating our youth about themselves and their society for an improved global environment… Dance is essential to humanness and therefore can enhance social, cultural, educational and economic existence, especially when effectively nurtured from an early age.

 

“If serious about educating for the future and transforming minds, then a systemic overhauling of the education system to include the Arts is necessary.”

 

The principal offered several suggestions on how a paradigm shift could be made in the region, by first recommending that the term “Arts education” must be clearly defined.

 

Additionally, Dr. DeGrasse-Johnson called for the development of a structure to review policies, plans and legislation and to create a support structure to implement arts and culture agreements.

 

She believes that dialogue between stakeholders and government officials about the significance of Arts education in the formal school curriculum must be strengthened; and the operational management in education and culture to allow a developmental structure in the Arts must be revised.

 

The principal told the audience that there must also be clear standards for physical infrastructure in schools and there is a critical need for research about the arts and human development. She also suggested that national curriculum for the Arts outlining what every child should know and be able to do is also needed.

 

“Shifting paradigm is not just about transforming society through the Arts, it’s about shaping a future for the next generation so that they will not be undernourished by the end of their education,” she challenged. (JH)