Unlike, presumably, the AQA and those who have made
the decision to circumvent our children’s education, I have actually lived in a
country – a very large and populous country – where more than two
generations have been brought up in
utter ignorance of their history, their place in the world, or any sense of the
aesthetic. They live their entire lives unmindfull of the fact that beauty
exists as anything other than an artificial and economic imperative.
As a result of having shriven from their environment
all that is not logical, practical and dependant for its value upon re-sale
worth, their country has become a barren, featureless landscape; their cities
the most polluted concrete units in all the world; their children unable to
project interest beyond the sealed barrier of Self.
Artsy-farty whaffle?
Then let’s look at the fact that, though mainly concealed, the suicide
rate per capita is estimated to be
the highest world-wide in that country.
The at-risk sector of the population is the 9 to 90 year old age group across all demographics. The
initial figure of ‘9’ is no misprint or mistake. It represents the age at which
suicide becomes a general risk. Younger
children don’t suicide in enough numbers to be included. But younger children
do kill themselves often enough not be totally anomalous.
No assessment
for statistics relating to self-harm have yet been carried out. However, across
the student body ranging from Undergrads to Post.docs whom I taught or tutored,
it was roughly around 80%.
Hyperbolic whaffle perhaps? The relation between these
ugly facts and the fact that the Arts have been violently and ruthlessly
excised from the National consciousness is a tenuous one born of purely personal
conclusions?
Indeed, in a
country where empirical evidence is almost impossible to garner, is it, at the
very least, simplistic to base so many conclusions about a country’s societal
problems upon the absence of the Arts?
I don’t find it hyperbolic or simplistic in the least:
it is in fact an extremely complicated paradigm and it took me almost seven
years before I could confidently asses the affect of the complete lack of
beauty, truth, imagination and critical thinking upon an entire civilization.
The impact of this cultural shift in a country once
upheld as one of the most innovative, sophisticated and inventive civilizations
in the world, demands more unpacking and investigation than a five-minute blog.
However, what one can do in a five minute blog is to run up a warning flag.
The value of the courses currently being snatched away
from whole generations in England are currently being discussed by academics in
articles, interviews, blogs and columns.
I have no wish to go over the same ground.
What I DO wish to point to is the result of refusing
to consider Education as an holistic, life-enriching process through which each emerging generation becomes aware of not
just their responsibility, but of the countless opportunities each of them has
to contribute to the betterment of their world.
The result of stifling a country’s creativity is
empirically proven. We already know
the result of limiting people’s horizons; of depriving them of imagination; of
reducing their cultural capital; and of rescinding their ability to make free
choices. One point six million people in China stand witness to it.
For us to continue now to let our politicians make
decisions for the future by going compliantly down this road is irresponsible
at the very least. The death knell of our civilisation at most.
We have to take back our heritage as Britons. Because,
in the space of a generation in which the Arts are deemed the province only of
the elite, who will have the critical skills to stand up and cry “Stop”?
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