Wednesday 13 August 2014

Shouldn’t You Be Boasting About How You’ll Ensure They Can Read, Write And Add Up, Harriet?

The number of primary school pupils taking part in extra-curricular music, drama and dance activities has slumped under the coalition, Harriet Harman, the shadow culture secretary, has said.
There’s been a recession on. Is that supposed to have had zero effect on extracurricular activities, Harriet?

Lord knows, you blame everything else on this…
A Labour analysis of official figures also identified a widening gap between the participation of white children and those from black and ethnic minority backgrounds in after-school arts classes.
Oh noes! Where will our future rap stars and graffiti artists come from?
"We are seeing a serious fall in the amount of art and culture that children are able to take part in," Harman said. "The blame for this lies fairly and squarely at the door of this government. They don't understand the importance of the arts and their role to extend opportunities to every child.
"Michael Gove devalued creativity in schools and many local arts organisations who would provide out-of-school activity for young people have lost support because of the government cuts to local councils. And more than a third of local authorities have reported a drop in after-school clubs since the elections."
Are the arts suddenly that important, then, Harriet? Have we forgotten ‘education, education, education’..?
She said Labour was committed to giving every child the opportunity to experience and participate in the arts, and would get Ofsted to check that every school was providing arts and cultural opportunities.
And…if children still refuse to participate? What then, forced art appreciation?

6 comments:

Macheath said...

Turned on the radio this morning to hear someone proclaiming that pupils should have exactly the same number of dance lessons as maths lessons in a week.

I'm sure it will be a great comfort, when he's lying in a hospital bed some day, to know that the nurse calculating the dosage of medicine spent as much time learning street dance as basic multiplication.

Flaxen Saxon said...

Bugger arts. Folk go to school to learn how to write; how to read; and if they are very lucky, to learn the intrinsic beauty of the infinitesimal calculus. I think it was Goring who once said, or was it Himler, I tend to get my Nazis mixed up these days. I'm fairly certain it wasn't that 'artist' Hitler. Anyway, one of those buggers pontificated thusly: 'Every time I hear someone mention culture, I reach for my gun.' Not completely on the nail, but ya get me drift.

Anonymous said...

[pedant on]Browning not gun. There's a theory that he meant Robert Browning as the Browning automatic is an American pistol.

Oh and it was Goering.[pedant off]

Mr. Morden said...

I think we all may have missed it.

She said; " . . .cultural opportunities."

Oh dear, they never learn do they ?

Anonymous said...

a famous saying does not lose potency just because the possible author is not correctly mentioned.

JuliaM said...

"I'm sure it will be a great comfort, when he's lying in a hospital bed some day, to know that the nurse calculating the dosage of medicine spent as much time learning street dance as basic multiplication."

I think they are hoping robots will do all that stiff by the time they need it.

They seem to gave overlooked who will program the robots.