Art Education

The pendulum swings back and forth; without its movement, it is just a material without action or mission. Its movement back and forth, left to right, negative position to positive position has great impact on our lives as humans: It is a mechanism designed to control the clock hence our time, values, judgments and rationalizations. As human beings, when we think about the initial important ideas brought forth by a subject or human activity at the expense of new developments, ideas and complications, then, we have gone back to the basics. The movement of the pendulum back and forth can be likened to antithetical actions, a contrast between two needs of a people at a point in time or period without having a climax. The most exciting moments, movements, or important events in a life time of a people are not achieved because of the ding – dong movement of situations of life like the pendulum.

When the world was about to be created, the holy book says, the earth was without form and void, it was the spirit of God moving on waters that facilitated the creation of form and void which facilitated the placement of light, darkness, land and water mass, day and night etc. and from these God saw that all He created were good. Today, due to human activity, the goodness achieved at the inception of the creation has been eroded. That creative spirit and goodness of God is Aesthetics. Over the centuries, due to increase in population and human activities, human values and virtues descended rather than assuming a position of ascendancy. Glories and virtues were watered-down or done with totally. To achieve the goodness lost, we have to move forward to the basics which are orderliness and aesthetics enshrined in creativity. Creativity is primordial. It involves the use of skills, techniques and imagination to produce new things. The creation is often regarded as an artistic phenomenon and so, creativity is erroneously used as a synonym of artistry. To be artistic is to be ‘Godly’ and to do otherwise is ‘devilish’. The word creativity here in use is a sense that refers to artistic creative endeavors and not the destructive creative tendencies. Thieves, terrorists are creative individuals too, but not artistic Art is science; the core of all human activities and subjects: ingenuity, engineering, agriculture, games etc. Regrettably, the core sciences have been developed at the expense of the humanities and the arts due to the developmental problems encountered by man. Too much emphasis has been placed on technological history at the expense of natural and cultural history forgetting that before technology, it was nature and creativity. Much sacrifice has been made for technology and advancement at the expense of ethics and moral values as a response to the challenges of poverty and exclusion, globalization, violence and conflict, non-respect of human rights, etc. That resultant effect of this is the annihilation of the world.

International Commission on Education for the Twenty — First Century to UNESCO (Delors Report, 1996) identified four pillars of knowledge around which education of today’s world is to be organized and each of them must receive equal attention so that both the individual and the community will see education, as a global experience:

“If it is to succeed in its tasks, education must be organized around four fundamental types of learning which; throughout a person’s life, will in a way be the pillars of knowledge: learning to know, that is acquired through the instrument of understanding; learning to do, that is to be able to act creatively on one’s environment; learning to live together, so as to participate and cooperate with other people in all human activities and learning to be an essential progression which proceeds from the previous three.”

African participants at UNESCO – Dakar 2000 in Dakar Framework for action identified the necessity for an active pedagogy that will give both children and adolescents an awareness of their potential to develop their capacities for reflection, critical analysis, and creation which is achieved through improved content of teaching and training, which are the Curricular and Teachers’ trainers:

“The necessity for curriculum transformation to give children, youth and adults the type of quality education that promotes appreciation of diversity richness and dynamism of our cultures, with a goal to liberate us from psychological, economic and technical dependency”.

Consequent upon all these, the roles of arts and artistic creativity become a great necessity because the mind is the source of creations and appreciation of local cultures. The Director — General of UNESCO at the 30th Session of the General Conference, Paris 1999, underscores the relevance and the importance for the promotion of Arts Education and Creativity at schools as a panacea for the construction of a culture of peace. He said, “There is lack of mediation and creativity everywhere, especially in schools. The arts are missing from our lives and we are giving way to violence.” Some of the identifiable roles of art education encompass the stimulation of body and mind which makes an individual to be more receptive to other forms of knowledge and developing creative faculty in the individual. Art education encourages children to appreciate the universal nature of the world through the teaching of the arts: poetry, drama, dance, music, movies and visual arts. For instance, the teaching of Fine Arts encourages mutual cooperation through play activities and spirit of fair play and competitions. The school of the Twenty-first century needs to tap the resources derived from creativity which is engendered in the arts. For example, in music, the passing of knowledge and values is made relevant to people through communal and personal events. The teaching of the arts facilitates the acquisition of communication and aesthetic skills which everyone needs in order to be able to face challenges posed for the future education and encounters in the world (UNESCO, 2001). Issues like criticism and self-criticism are necessary for the development of the sense of responsibility and recognition of the ingenuity of others; the development of imagination and critical sense needed for personal effort and growth; most importantly the development of a keen sense of observation. Some other attributes derivable from art education are sound intellectual development, emotional balance and the recognition of personal identity. It also gives opportunity and forum for relaxation, pleasure and enjoyment. The teaching of the arts also develops values, moral, imaginative, emotional, intellectual capacities, inventiveness and the development of repertoire needed for personal forms of expression and communication needed to gain access to day-to-day life activities. For a wholesome, all-round development of an individual, the teaching of arts and sciences has to be attended to with equal attention, not one at the expense of the other.

Cannatella, (2006:5-1) proves that these views about Art Education had been envisioned. Great thinkers and philosophers like Plato (427-47BCE) in his Republic and Aristotle (384-322BCE) also in his Poetics have considerable outlook for the importance of art educational theory and practice. Plato’s consideration for the teaching of poetry is borne-out of its hypnotic effects of mechanical, repetitive, visual and social conditioning elements which could conceal life’s problems; Aristotle in his own thought considers poetic ‘construction as a medium of truth and a source of deep moral content. Plato expounds the dangers inherent in indoctrination and memorization which produces narrowness of mind and reasoning skills. He suggests that recall alone does not discern how we know, this could account for why some cultures and traditions are producing terrorists today because of the narrowness of mind brought about by rote learning without grasping the actual meaning of things and moral truth of life

In response to the foregoing, Plato recommends dialectical reasoning which, the arts bring. Aristotle on the other hand saw mimesis as playing a significant role in assisting human understanding, noting ‘that it is natural’ for human beings to contemplate and construct images, actions, tunes’ and ideas in mimetic ways and more so that mimesis produces learning and enjoyment in addition to interpreting, human experiences and expressions which he found in dramatic arts. Aristotle’s Poetics reveals how learning and understanding in arts produces cognitive and objectivist production that is over personal views He believes in the ability of art to teach through mimesis and that all artistic productions are beneficial, mimesis helps practical and theoretical knowledge of art which eventually meets societal needs.

In conclusion, I want to use the Pendulum Magazine’s revised slogan “…swinging for change”. To achieve this we have to move forward to the basics, a movement which Art Education provides: the form and void that was initially lacking at the inception of the world. The pendulum swings back and forth: swings between descendancy and ascendancy. We need to be ascendants of the human race rather than be descendants; and to achieve this, art education is the basics. Legendary artists are known to have pioneered great scientific inventions and had championed developments in the medical field too.

References:

1.         Cannatellà, H.J. (2006). “Plato and Aristotle’s Educational Lessons from the Iliad. Paideusis, Volume 15 (2006) No.2, pp. 5-13.

2.         Pendulum Magazine (Maiden Edition) 2012.

3.         UNESCO 1996. — Learning: the Treasure within/Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty – First Century UNESCO. Paris (out of print) — 266pp.

4.         UNESCO 1999. Education for All – A, ‘Framework’ for Action in Sub-Saharan Africa: Educational for African Renaissance in the Twenty – first century adopted by the Regional Conference on Education for All for Sub-Saharan Africa, ‘Johannesburg, South Africa, 6-10. December, 1999. ,

5.         UNESCO 2000. – The Dakar Framework for action; Education for all: Meeting on collective Commitments Dakar, Senegal, 26 – 28 April, 2000.

6.         UNESCO 2001. – “General Report of the Regional Conference on Arts Education in Africa 24-30 June, 2001” 11pp. Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Available on internet:http://www.unesço.org /culture/creativity /education/html_englregional.

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