At School...

"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." 

- Pablo Picasso

Throughout my primary schooling art was usually a treat, a 'time-filler', or a task for early finishers. Resources were generally limited to crayons, pencils and textas applied to butcher paper. (Charcoal was banned after some boys coloured their faces in!) And choir practice was the closest we ever came to a 'concert' performance, though I recall one or two comedic 'skits' in the final years. So, yes, as O'Toole (2012) argues, the creative arts were marginalised, though I expect our 'free play' was less prescribed and supervised than that of today's schoolchildren.

My younger son, James, has had a more diverse arts experience...

Not surprisingly, creative arts were considered a 'soft' elective at secondary school, though some teachers were inspired to integrate a more imaginative perspective into subjects such as History and English Literature. Drawing Chaucer's 'Wife of Bath' was a challenge, though reflections on the artistic merit of our attempts were shallow at best.

www.luminarium.org/medlit/wife.htm

Medieval English, not aesthetic literacy, was the main game after all!

Since then, thankfully, priorities have shifted to a more considered view of the role of the arts in school. Overall, my own arts experience reminds me of the 1978 song 'Flowers are Red' by Harry Chapin:

Ironically, I remember having to sing it at school!

Vikki

References:

O'Toole, J. (2012). Art, creativity and motivation. In C. Sinclair, N. Jeannert & J. O'Toole (Eds), Education in the arts. Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press.