Graham Allum, 9 January 2016

It began with a discussion of experiences of people involved in education as teachers

or lecturers and the intense pressure to teach to exams and marginalize creativity.

-Is the exam system the best place to nurture creativity?

-Shutting down the arts in education.

Steve from Kidderminster has found a way ofgetting past documentary evidence using

blogs to fulfill learning criteria, getting those out of the way then doing the creative

stuff.

However you are always at the mercy of external examiners, Ofsted and results

obsessed management.

-Creativity is often seen as an obstacle or irrelevance to learning.

-We have won the argument for the value of culture in society but not in education for

the majority.

-There is a fear of all things liberal.

-But there is inherent value in creative training. Although in drama schools because of

pressure on retention and results there is no culling process which leads to mediocrity.

But how do you quantify creativity? The two approaches seem incompatible.

However the relationship between cultural organisations (theatres,concert halls etc.)

and education is key. e.g. The Derby (Theatre Unwrapped) model funded by the

university.

And the will of artists to engage with communities is greater than ever.

- Are artists and teachers willing to give extra for no rewaard fundinga bad model?

Theatre in Education and Young Peoples Theatre went through a crisis of dogma and

funding. Now we have a great new opportunity but no strategy.

- Need to get involved as school governors

-Can get funding for work in schools through education charities and Universities.

-Collaboration between all arts workers in essential

-Learn to speak the language of educators and funders

-Use stealth and cunning

It is difficult to prove the value of creativity in education in the way that those incharge

of policy understand.

Increasingly organisations outside of the school and college system are being

approached to fill in the gaps in arts provision.

We need a new strategy, we need to collaborate to find new ways in. We need to find

ways to talk about the value of what we do and we need to be cunning.

So what is the role of practicing freelancers or outside organisations in education?

Tags:

creativity, in, Creativity, Education, education

Comments: 1

Lloyd Davis, 11 January 2016

“Steve from Kidderminster” is Steve Lawson, easiest found as @solobasssteve on Twitter