ABSTRACT
Teaching art is one of the perks of being a primary school teacher. It brings delight to the children and adults alike, enabling them to celebrate ingenuity, inventiveness, and creativity through the making and viewing of works of art. We write at a time of uncertainty about the role of art and arts education in the primary sector, so it is with some ambivalence that we open this chapter by quoting at length one of the most powerful statements we have read in support of the arts in schools, from a recent OFSTED publication.
… the most persuasive argument for an education in the arts concerns the benefits of attainment in the arts for its own sake.
The arts … are intrinsic components of human culture, heritage and creativity. They mirror the whole repertoire of human experience, and are worthy of study in their own right. It is difficult to imagine a world without arts, with no drawing, music or painting for example. Few, if any, cultures are without these elements.
The arts are a response to our thirst for knowledge, insight and revelation. They give people opportunities to explore their feelings, come into contact with the spiritual, increase their knowledge, develop their skills, and articulate and realise their aspirations. They provide ways of knowing, representing, presenting, interpreting and symbolising, and a context for appreciating and valuing.
Contact with the arts requires the abilities to question, explore, collaborate, and extend and develop one’s ideas, and the ideas of others. The creation of art requires a sense of structure, discipline, rigour, and a positive response to challenge.
(OFSTED 1998)