Norwood (1943)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Contents, Introduction

Part I Secondary education
Chapter 1 Nature of secondary education
Chapter 2 Secondary education as it is
Chapter 3 Secondary education as it might be

Part II Examinations
Chapter 4 Existing examinations
Chapter 5 The reorganisation of examinations (i)
Chapter 6 The reorganisation of examinations (ii)
Chapter 7 The Inspectorate

Part III Curriculum
Chapter 8 The curriculum in general
Chapter 9 Physical education
Chapter 10 Religious education
Chapter 11 English
Chapter 12 History
Chapter 13 Geography
Chapter 14 Mathematics
Chapter 15 Natural science
Chapter 16 Modern languages
Chapter 17 Classics
Chapter 18 Art, music, handicrafts
Chapter 19 Domestic subjects
Chapter 20 Education for commerce
Chapter 21 Wales and the teaching of Welsh

Conclusions and recommendations
Appendix A Note on the Central Welsh Board
Appendix B List of witnesses
Index

Report of the Committee of the Secondary School Examinations Council appointed by the President of the Board of Education in 1941

London: HM Stationery Office 1943

Chapter 18 Art, music, handicraft
[pages 122 - 127. In the printed version this is Part III Chapter XI]

Art, music and handicraft have certain affinities which entitle them to be discussed together.

They have not received the attention in schools which is due to them. They were received as late-comers; when they were taught, they occupied a place outside the regular curriculum and were taught as 'extras' or spare-time activities. The right teachers were not easy to find; the rooms and equipment demanded have not always been available; and the subjects have therefore lacked a good tradition in the schools. There is, however, another reason for their neglect. When they were adopted into the curriculum, they occupied an uneasy position, lying apart from the rest of it; there seemed uncertainty - less perhaps as regards art - how they were related to other subjects, and they themselves did not always justify their inclusion on grounds which carried conviction. And so they are often regarded as an offset or relief to other subjects, appealing to some special powers of the mind otherwise neglected; in short, emphasis has been laid on their unique and special values. But, as we have urged in the chapter on Curriculum, a curriculum which will satisfy through its unity of purpose cannot be constructed merely by balancing subjects as reliefs or offsets to each other.

These subjects, though they are sometimes grouped together as the 'aesthetic' subjects, are not unique in carrying aesthetic appeal, in cultivating taste or aesthetic sensibility, in training in the understanding and appreciation of design or harmony. It would be superfluous to argue that one of the main concerns of literature is precisely with these things within a certain fixed experience; a history essay may show a sense of form, arrangement, structural unity; a composition may be ill-designed or well-designed; a translation may show sensitiveness to shades of meaning; a mathematical proof may appeal because of its neatness or elegance or clarity; the study of nature is not oblivious of beauty. We might develop this further and we should not regard ourselves as guilty of verbal play; we point in all sincerity to ground common to these subjects and to the rest of the curriculum. There is of course other common ground; art, music, handicraft, no less than other studies, provide an experience of concentrated effort, an occupation for leisure, a channel of communication; but we are concerned especially here with their claims to cultivate aesthetic sensibility. Nor is it true that these subjects make no demand on powers other than that of appreciation. To plan, design and execute an elaborate stage setting may call for qualities of mind not unrelated to those required for the solving of a mathematical problem or the planning of an essay.

If then the view is taken that the ground which is common to art, music, handicraft and other subjects is their first title to inclusion in the curriculum, some guidance is available as to the position which these subjects might be expected to occupy in schools. The matter may be put plainly thus: if through literature or languages or mathematics, or whatever it may be, a boy is learning to appreciate form and design and structure and composition, he will lose much if he does not go on to appreciate them also in painting, sculpture. music and the crafts; he will be incomplete. If - no doubt a rare case - he has learned to appreciate them in the one field and has had opportunity to appreciate them in the other but has failed, then he should not be forced to do what he cannot do; his curriculum will not include time for art in any form, and it will not be unbalanced, for it will fit him. If in the field of literature and the other subjects his power of appreciation of aesthetic values is not marked, he may nonetheless find himself in art or music or handicraft, and it may be that having found himself there he will become more sensitive in other fields. Thus, opportunity should at some stage be given to undertake these subjects, to give them up or to pursue them further. They should not in our view be compulsory at all stages.

Secure in this position, art, music, handicraft may now draw attention to their unique and specific values. On these we need not dilate; all we would do is to suggest that they do not furnish the subjects with their first and surest title to inclusion in the curriculum. Changes in psychology may lead to changed views about 'emotional release'; training in critical power might come to be regarded as more important in secondary grammar schools than creativeness; educational theorists might come to attach a different meaning to 'reality'. The special values of art and music will remain what they are, both for the artist and musician and their public, and life is poorer without them. But there is a danger in attempting to justify and recommend them by linking them with pleas which may at some time diminish in cogency as educational or psychological theory changes. As long as languages, literature, mathematics and natural science remain subjects of the curriculum, art, music, and handicraft can with certainty claim a place for themselves as offering, in another field, an extension of the opportunities given by those subjects. It will be readily understood from the argument hitherto advanced that we put a broad interpretation upon the terms art, music and handicraft. There has been perhaps in the past a tendency, now happily less marked, to limit these subjects to particular forms and to regard as necessary in the pupil some degree of executive ability. While we should hold that nothing can take the place of learning to work upon a material or through a medium, development of aesthetic sensibility is not necessarily dependent upon such work. Most children have at least latent power of appreciation, which can be brought out, even if they are deficient in executive ability. Much is now being done by visits and by lectures, exhibitions and concerts, to bring children under influences which will awaken and strengthen aesthetic sensibility, and we regard this as a valuable step forward and wish to encourage further development along these lines.

We submit, then, that the justification for the inclusion of these subjects lies, first, in their likeness to other subjects, and, secondly, in their own special values. They have been hampered in finding their right place, partly by their late claim to a place in the regular curriculum, partly by inadequate presentation and appreciation of their case; and from these causes certain disabilities have resulted. The disabilities experienced by the three subjects have not been dissimilar and may be discussed together.

In the first place we suspect that the attitude of head masters and head mistresses has not always been entirely sympathetic. Some of their difficulties, it is true, have been great; they have been confronted with the pressure of subjects, the utilitarian demands of pupils, the apparent lack of 'results' in some of the teaching, and deficiency of space and equipment. Nonetheless we are impressed with the achievement of schools which, though equally handicapped as regards demands of other subjects and lack of facilities, have managed to make these subjects real influences in their general life.

Lack of teachers is well known to be serious. Some schools, as is equally well known, have managed to secure the services of a gifted teacher who can direct and inspire the teaching of his subject and gain the respect of his pupils and take a full part in the common life of the school. But not all schools are so fortunate, and there is much evidence of teachers in this field who are unsuitably qualified for work in schools in the subject which they profess.

Again, small schools find it impossible to appoint a specialist teacher in all these subjects, for they do not need their full-time services. The employment of part-time teachers, not always easy in itself, may carry its own disadvantages. To meet this difficulty we would recommend that teachers should be qualified to teach one or more of these subjects or should combine them with other subjects of the curriculum, and this is a course in which we see merit not only on grounds of convenience. Training in two or more subjects need not present, we think, insuperable difficulties.

Thirdly, lack of room and lack of equipment have undoubtedly presented serious impediments to the development of art, music, and crafts, particularly in some of the older school buildings. A hard-worked assembly hall has often had to serve too many purposes and classrooms have served as art rooms; craft rooms and workshops have lacked the space needed and too often have been makeshift.

Finally, these subjects which depend so greatly upon individual genius and taste cannot in our view be brought at the school stage within the confines of external examination, however sympathetically devised, without considerable loss of the freedom which is their life. In urging that these subjects should be given more generous scope in schools, we urge also that they should preserve liberty to develop on lines best suited to the individuality of teacher and pupil, and should be enabled to pay regard to environment and to local activities and crafts.

Music

We have recommended that opportunity should be given to pupils in the lower school, that is from eleven to thirteen years of age, to receive instruction in music. It would help the work of the lower school if there were some continuity between the work of the contributory primary schools and the grammar school, and the record of the child passed on from one school to the other might contain useful information as to capacity or incapacity in music shown in the early years. The master taking music in the lower forms of the grammar school would then be able to make allowance for failure owing to physical defect or sheer lack of taste or ability.

In this connection it is important to draw the distinction between power of appreciation and executive skill, and to observe that the children who after tuition are incapable of singing or playing an instrument (probably fewer in number than is commonly supposed) yet do derive great enjoyment and value from being shown how to listen to music. It is part of the teacher's work to cater for both; admittedly the 'teaching' of appreciation is a matter which calls for exceptional skill, if harm is not to be done by the forcing of the teacher's judgement upon the pupil.

On the other hand, with little training very many pupils can take their place in choir or orchestra, and gain thereby benefits which are not only musical. Training in articulation and breath control is a necessary part of the training of a choir, and when speech-training is undertaken in special classes it is often, as it should be, directly related to instruction in singing. Again, membership of a choir or an orchestra gives valuable experience of coordinated effort and achievement; the individual has to subordinate himself to the collective purpose of the whole, which nonetheless depends upon him; children who are unable to take part in other cooperative activities often gain self-confidence and a sense of community from singing or taking part in an orchestra alongside their school-fellows. Another point which we would make for music is that deficiencies in what is called 'background' do not or need not impede progress or stand in the way of superlative achievement in music; advantages of home atmosphere likely to help in some subjects count for less in music, and the musical child starting more on a level with his fellows gathers confidence and a sense of status.

Art and handicrafts

Art and handicrafts should in our opinion receive the broadest interpretation in schools. If we were right in drawing attention on an earlier page to the close relationship between art and many other subjects, the term must not be limited, as we suspect it sometimes is, to training skill in the representation of things seen or to undue concentration on what is called 'imagination', or to pictorial art to the exclusion of craft, which for many pupils is the more natural form of expression and the more natural approach to the study of design.

Opportunity should be given for pupils to receive training in the necessary skills, and such opportunity would receive justification on the grounds that such training coordinates hand and eye and develops control, and that design is often best understood through the experience of wrestling with a material. Such justification should not be minimised, and we have suggested that opportunity for this training should be available at all stages for pupils whose interests make it desirable. Even within the training, we suggest, there is room for some widening of view, which would help to commend the subject to older pupils whose main interests lay elsewhere; for example, a little guidance in the technique of drawing would go a long way to help pupils to make the sketches and diagrams necessary in biology, geography, nature study and fieldwork, Scouting, local surveys and local history, and no doubt in other subjects and activities.

But apart from training in skill there is, we suggest, a much broader field of art education; we hesitate to call it 'appreciation' for fear of being misunderstood - it is simply encouragement of the boys and girls to see with seeing eyes, to be aware of form and colour and design. This sensitiveness is often actual or potential in pupils who lack executive skill or find no pleasure in what they execute. To appreciation of physical environment training in executive skill may make a desirable, and for many pupils an essential, contribution, but it does not make the whole or the only contribution. We are anxious that all children, and not least the older, should have the opportunity of seeing the place of art in the spiritual and social and economic life of the present and the past. The study of a civilisation or an age can scarcely be undertaken without reference to its art; we should like to see the importance of this vital connection brought out in the teaching of history and geography and literature, partly for the sake of those studies, but also in order that the significance of that connection may be realised for today. In appreciation of environment there may be found a link which can join up various forms of art teaching and give them unity, as, for instance, architecture and town planning and interior decoration. And so we would urge that by lectures and discussion, by visits to centres of craft and industry and to exhibitions, there may be kept before children the importance of art as a powerful influence for good or ill in modern life, the enrichment which it can bring to their lives and their own responsibility as its guardians in the future.