Substantive and disciplinary knowledge have become the words around which curriculum is being organised in some schools. Pro forma’s are filled in enthusiastically, or not so, to justify curriculum choices to line-managers. And whilst these terms seem to work well in some subjects I’m not so sure the distinction works so well in the arts. … More Curriculum, Assessment and the Arts
The problem with the word ‘creativity’ is that it conjures up such a wide range of possible interpretations that it ends up serving no-one except those who wish to peddle it as a pedagogical aim and charge thousands of pounds for their talks in Dubai or Davos, or a school hall near you on an … More Schools Should Ditch Creativity
Howl, by Ginsberg can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVGoY9gom50 The Seashell and the Clergyman: https://youtu.be/ypseXIQVaF0 Marat/Sade: https://youtu.be/RJc4I6pivqg De La Guarda: https://youtu.be/ks-DFvklR0c Circus Archaos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSekQXA0Gz8 Forced Entertainment: https://youtu.be/eJGm8hDhCdo DV8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAUmimFtFzQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIDxSGyO_TQ Berkoff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6DUpCfICyMhttps://youtu.be/jzApltTRVSk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHn_c1nizMc Odin Teatret: https://youtu.be/s8dj4awiMJY Grotowski: https://youtu.be/dRyLLTvs00c Living Theatre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaUpu67D_wA Antonin Artaud, POUR EN FINIR AVEC LE JUGEMENT DE DIEU (Version intégrale) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXy7lsGNZ5A Robert Le Page, … More Antonin Artaud Video + Slides
A talk and slides about: ‘Making Meaning in the World’. A look at some of the themes in ‘Athena vs the Machine’ 1.Conversation of humankind (culture) the way we do things here vs (who are you calling we?) – experience.2.Culture: Developing taste, opinions, values – finding meaning… truth, beauty, care, relationship to things, others – … More Curriculum and Culture
A curriculum can sometimes seem like one damn thing after another, especially if taught in blocks or thought of as a journey connecting different topics as you go from A to Y with Z being an exam. In an A level course with a syllabus demanding certain topics be studied, end of term exams, a … More Organising Knowledge: On Triangles and Ts and Russian Dolls.
There has been a stormzy brewing for some time about curriculum content. The National curriculum says we ought to teach ‘the best’, I don’t agree, we each have our subjective tastes and sensibilities, I think it is better to teach children to enter into the conversation about what the best might be. That is not … More Stormzy or Mozart, Who Knows?
Here is a video of a talk I gave in the Netherlands, and the accompanying slides should you wish to follow the fun. You can download a pdf of the slides below… (might take a bit of time to download… Hopefully not too long)
Here is my post for the TES from earlier this week: https://www.tes.com/news/dont-simplify-complex-shakespeare-emojis
The Guardian gushes: At a time when arts are squeezed in some schools, teachers are embracing them as a tool to teach the environment without realising it is this insidious belief that the arts are merely a pedagogical tool that is leading to a paucity of engagement with great art. The tragic figure of the starving … More Dumbing Down the Arts
Apparently there are now 1,700 fewer drama teachers teaching in UK schools than there were in 2010. I don’t have any information as to how accurate this figure is and what the figures are in the constituent nations of the United Kingdom nor how it compares to other subjects, suffice to say it adds to … More Drama in Decline
Trivium 21c 