The Arts in Schools - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

the last decade by the development of community arts andby a growing acceptance of cultural pluralism. Even so, thereis a long way to go and much depends upon the schools. Forthem the implications extend not only to a reconsiderationof the balance of the curriculum but also to examinationsyllabuses, the training of teachers and examiners, the needfor greater liaison between regional arts associations andlocal education authorities, and to a recognition that providingfor the special needs of the arts of racial minoritiesliving in Britain, and the arts of other cultures, can not be atemporary commitment. It will have a profound and continuingeffect upon our education system as the most farreachingmeans of underpinning the foundations of a societywhich has become, in the course of a single generation, bothmulti-racial and multi-cultural. This does not mean, ofcourse, that all schools must teach all children about allcultures. It means rather that we must recognise — in theterms which we discussed in Chapter 3 — that all teachingtakes place in a cultural context and that this must be takeninto account by the school.177 Respond- With Section 10 of the 1976 Education Act on the statuteing to the book, the Warnock Report concluded that the spirit ofchallenge integration implied by Section 10 is 'a challenge to theeducation system as a whole'. We believe that this 'challenge'applies directly to helping the special needs which we havediscussed. To meet this challenge we define eight responses:a there should be a source of expert advice within eachauthority through advisers and/or counsellors, withmore trained counsellors at local level free enough toattend to individual requirements in each area of needb there should be more in-service training of teachers inhow to identify and assist the talented, the disabled andthe racial minorities, and to acquire appropriate attitudesand orientatione the arts of other cultures should inform arts teaching ateach level of educationd there should be short courses to assist administrators toan understanding of these special problems and theirsolutionse there should be similar help for parents, seeking especiallyto bridge the gap between school and homewhich often developsf where a career in one of the arts is indicated (andartistic talent can reside in the disabled as well as theable-bodied of whatever race) careers teachers should befamiliar with arts training opportunities as well as the109