The Arts in Schools - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

'Within individual schools in certain local educationauthorities as many as 50% of pupils were from immigrantbackgrounds, and in a few concentrations of over 90%. Yetthe presence in such numbers of children from ethnicminorities, who very often had extreme contrastingculture, was not considered to warrant any considerationwith regard to general curriculum development in theschools. Their needs were seen merely in terms of (i)intense language exposure and (ii) behavioural correctionunder the guise of education subnormality (ESN).' 7175 The This quotation from a paper prepared for the Commissionneed for for Racial Equality indicates the need to make appropriateprovision cultural provision for the children of racial minorities.Such provision is as important for all students and for allstaff in our schools as it is for the children and teachers ofthe racial minorities themselves. The general lack of understandingof the cultures of racial minorities is a cause ofincreasing concern to educationalists, politicians and socialworkers alike. This is partly because of its implications forracial disharmony. Yet schools, if they were so minded,could use the enormous diversity of cultural and artisticresources now available in many classrooms to increase therelevance of much that is taught and, not least, to helpbridge the gap between schools and the home. Unfortunately,in schools and in curricula where the arts are not highlyregarded, the art-forms of non-Europeans are likely tosuffer most. All children will be losers from this attitude,but the children of minority races may suffer disproportionatelyas their values are excluded or ignored.176 Impli- We have argued already that art is not something restrictedcartons to Tiigh' culture. Neither is it a product only of Europeanfor the culture and its derivatives in various parts of the world. Thecurriculum art forms of Asia, Africa and other Third World cultures —their music, dance, drama, sculpture and pottery — open theway to new ideas of history, geography, religion, socialorganisation, and art itself. This does not call necessarily forany new structures but for a wider acceptance of other thanWestern traditions in our existing arrangements. The arts inBritain and internationally have often gained and developedthrough a creative response to new influences, from Frenchand Italian opera, Gothic cathedrals, and Chinese porcelain,to the use made by Picasso of African art. The main differenceis that we have the proponents of these arts in our very midst.Already in our communities there are the street carnivals,steel band music, African and Indian dancing. This widerunderstanding of art has been encouraged in Britain during108