‘Hobby’ Subjects to be Wiped Out

The government has decided to extend school hours to allow extra time for arts subjects, and teachers have warned it could undermine creative subjects by labelling them as “hobbyist”.

Teachers are also saying that younger secondary students are being given art classes just once a fortnight, and the interest of those wanting to study art at GCSE is dwindling.

Now, as someone who studied art and performing arts at GCSE level, it’s quite irksome that subjects like these are being pushed aside. Creativity is something that can’t be accessed through a traditional classroom setting. Or in a science lesson or a maths lesson, where you’re either wrong or right.

There is the age-old joke that arts degrees are worthless. “Why would you spend your life working toward something like stage performance or painting?” is a question I was asked when I took my GCSEs, and is one that is difficult to answer, really.

You stick with what you love and are good at. So if you find you have natural talent in performing, or show artistic flair, why shouldn’t that be taken seriously as a subject? How is it any less important than science? If someone puts hours and hours into an art installation, that should hold just as much value as an essay. Or a complex maths question.

Peter Oates, an art teacher based in the Peak District, shared similar views at the NASUWT conference,reporting that some parents were already discouraging their children from pursuing a path in the study of the arts. These parents believed there was no value in the more creative subjects.

“The government’s latest missive, looking to extend the school day for art, music, drama clubs, will only reaffirm those ill-informed parental views that arts are a hobbyist subject,” he said.

George Osborne announced that the budget would provide £285m so that 25% of schools would extend their days to allow for more “extra-curricular activities like sport and art.”

But Mr Oates said that this showed that the formal study of arts and subjects with a creative focus were close to being “eradicated” in some schools, in an act of “education vandalism”. Mr Oates has taught art for 38 years, and has seen “a number of schools [that] have almost eradicated some art subjects from their curriculum.”

The focus that many school boards are taking is completely disregarding those who don’t want to go down a strict academic route, and ignoring the fact that many students want to study in the field of arts, or media, or performing arts.