This is an as yet unsubstantiated thought that our schooling is a direct decedent of our puritanical past. Schools, the army, the class system: control, categorise, regiment. Children to be seen (if that) and not heard. A Cromwellian nightmare of grey work pray serve. Anything colourful, fun, dancing, playful, banned as frivolous, not serious. At times I curse my puritanical upbringing, with it's work ethic. Artists are often seen as subversive, bohemian, selfish, reclusive, perhaps even not useful. Why are the head of sciences and maths at the school where I teach paid more than the heads of the arts and the humanities? The school will say that all students have to do these subjects, this is why they are paid more. Why do all students have to do maths and science, but not art, especially as we live in a society where the arts employ so many? Art is playful, often not serious, and therefore less important. There is also the thought that our education system, mechanised and industrial, is a result to an extent of the generation lost in WW1 - all the teachers that died, so classes were taught by specialists, in much greater numbers, on a conveyer belt of learning.

Tags: play,pedagogy,school