![]() |
  |
July 4, 2009 
|
| |
|
|
| Arts in class no guarantee |
Modern master |
Art of the opt-out |
|
Australian schoolchildren have been promised an “arts rich” education in the coming national curriculum, but arts advocates now fear there will be an opt-out clause for students who lack “aptitude” or simply choose to skip such subjects. There is also concern the Federal Government has failed to seize the wider potential of arts and the creative industries for future economic innovation. |
Architect Glenn Murcutt still remembers the home his father built in New Guinea, and his uncle being there too. “We were the impostors,” he says. “The local Kukukuku people [were] still feared by the rest of the Papua New Guineans ... "As they came down the hill through the high grass, it looked like a snake in the grass, and my father’s indentured workers would start shaking through incredible fear." |
'Picture that badly behaved boy or girl in class, unable to concentrate and knuckle down on studies. He or she may be a budding artist. Open up his or her world with drawing or music or dancing classes and you could have Australia’s next big star. Yet it is questionable Australian children are on the verge of getting an “arts rich” education, as federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett recently guaranteed.' |
| Written Content : ©Steve Dow 2001-2009 | Photograph: Simon O'Dwyer | Site Design: Outstanding Creations |