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It is only a tiny minority who are born without a talent in one direction or another. Even
these people are usually employable. It seems logical, in general, that one aim of education
should be to develop latent ability, whatever that ability may be.
However, the pressure from educational theorists today is to concentrate teaching on
preparation for employment. Parents, also, feel that the priority for their children is to become
equipped to earn a good living. Governments urge concentration on certain subjects, so that a
pool of labor can be formed which can move easily into specialized training. These essential
subjects include English, or another international language, since these languages possess
technical vocabularies and also equip young people to travel overseas in the course of their
work. The other favored subjects arc mathematics, the sciences, the use of computers and other
office machinery, engineering, and general handwork. Given
proficiency in some or all of there,
it is a short step to useful employment. Modern job opportunities lie in the fields of the service
industries, i.e. banking, insurance and stockbroking, technology and the manufacture of
sophisticated products, research and development and computers. Governments see these
occupations as essential to national wealth creation, and therefore crucial to the general
improvement of the national standard of living.
There will always he young people more interested in the arts than in the sciences. The arts
are usually bracketed under the general heading 'liberal studies'; they include history, languages
and literature, philosophy, politics and economics, social and environmental studies. Some
require exact knowledge and serious study, while others are 'soft options'. In any real sense they
are totally unproductive, and modern education has spawned a brood of these non-subjects. It
is small wonder that both governments and parents discourage some of them nowadays. We
live in a real world. Yet the reverse of this coin is the necessary enrichment of the culture of all
countries in successive generations. What is material success if there is nothing to engage the
artistic side of our nature in our spare time?
Perhaps the greatest concept of education originates in the European cultural renaissance
in Italy, and dates back to the late Middle Ages. It is the development of the whole person.
Perhaps the modern version of 'mens sana in corpore sano', a 'healthy body in a healthy mind',
still has its place. So even attention to sports training is justifiable.
So music, art and drama must all have their place in the curriculum, even if this is not a
prime place. Every country has its own artistic heritage, and it would be tragic if that heritage
were lost through neglect. Yet this is not merely a matter of conservation. Artistic pursuits have
now become international and offer brilliant careers to gifted young people of every country. It
is clear that those with this kind of talent should be encouraged. |
