Indian Education & the Arts in American Education
No, really, there’s a connection.
And, I might add, this is pure opinion based upon observations and conversations. I haven’t had time to do research (although I’m very interested in pursuing it, given my travels and my interest).
I’ve been teaching at Gyandeep Public School in the Himachal Pradesh District in Northern India. Before I describe what I’ve observed, I need to explain a couple points of reference.
The area in which I’m teaching is lower-middle class. However, “public school” here means that it’s a private school for which the parents must pay for their children to attend (unless they’re female: they are assured a free education by the federal government). Another important fact to understand is that the parents of the area are pretty serious about their children’s education: the District Himachal Pradesh currently has the second highest literacy rate in the nation. Finally, the students are educated bilingually. There is a long history of this…in the not-so-distant past, Indian children all studied Hindi and Arabic (which was the court language of the time), but since the now-defuct British rule of the nation, all students are required to learn Hindi and English.
I explain these so that there is not a misconception, based upon what I say, that there is a substandard education happening in India.
After teaching here (albeit relatively briefly) and several conversations with teachers and educational professionals in the area, it is clear that the children are well-educated and bright. However, given their course-work, they are missing one thing: the Arts. At an average school, there is no formal education in any sort of art form. Similarly, there is no need for creativity in their lessons or homework. More often than not, they are expected to copy forms and transcripts of things in an effort to understand them (with which they are very successful).
However, when they are presented with a lesson that involves creativity of any sort, they freeze. This is true of every student I’ve seen grades 1 through +2 (+2 is their equivalent of 12th grade). Rather than make something up, they instead ask for an example to copy. At an individual student level, this is a shame, but apparently it has been noticed at a national level, and there is some concern: although the Indian currency is strong enough to have an international symbol recently granted to it and their population is a potentially huge work-force, as a nation there is very little creative process present. There are those in education which are comparing their country to China (close in proximity as well as population) and are concerned about China’s ability to be creative as opposed to their struggles with the same.
Time will tell how India will come to terms with this concern. However, I see a direct correlation to something happening in parts of the United States, today.
The arts are slowly being removed from a large number of curricula of school across the nation. There are many reasons given for doing this, but they often boil down to two: lack of funding and need to teach the standards on which the children will be tested. Regardless of tales or wishes to the contrary, teachers ARE teaching to the standardized test which they must administer a number of times every year. How could they not: their jobs are dependent upon whether or not their students make enough progress year after year. The students are expected to replicate formulae and write within a certain style or their scores are lower than they should be and they and (more importantly) the school and district have failed. I don’t want to go into a rant about how 100% of the responsibility of the education of the children of our nation is placed squarely on 33% of the stakeholders (teachers/parents/students) is and effort doomed to failure, suffice to say that if you haven’t looked into the reality of teaching in the public school system, then you may want to visit your local public school.
However, the correlation between India and the U.S. is clear…at least in my eyes. I fear for the creativity of Americans. Are we, as a nation, willing to let our creativity slowly seep from our nation? Some people perceive the Arts to be nothing more than “fluff,” and even if you don’t consider the massive amounts of creativity that problem solving requires (eco-friendly transportation, clean energy, etc.), if you just consider everything in your life the Arts touch, do you really want to lose that? Did you hear music today? Did you enjoy the color and shape of your car? Have you seen a good movie lately? How about a good book…have you read one? Is there any kind of color coordination to your home? Your wardrobe? Do you have a landscaped yard?
The arts surround us, and although we often take them for granted, imagine that they were gone. I’m seeing some of the results where I’m teaching right now.
I’m concerned.