Arts & Sports in School

Great Debates
1

Fair enough. Besides learning how to keep physically fit you learn teamwork, self worth, how to set goals, discipline, confidence, and respect for others (ie. being a good sport). Learning these things will serve a student beyond the confines of any sport for the rest of their life. Admittedly you can learn many of the same things in the arts. It takes discipline to learn all your lines in Death of Salesman and it takes teamwork for a symphony orchestra to play the Firebird Suite correctly.

Do sports have any value in our educational system? Yes, as do the arts. I think every student should be involved in both the arts and sports.

Marc

2

I agree with this, with the caveat that sports are good for every student as long as the atmosphere of the sports activity isn’t bullying or demeaning. My experience with sports was just that—crappy treatment from fellow students, while the teacher looked on and did nothing. However, the weight training class and the golf class I took in school were very enjoyable—because I wasn’t on a team and therefore no one else cared how crappy I performed. (I was a sucky athlete. Being berated didn’t make me any better.)

I derived great benefits from the weight training class I had. I lost weight and generally had a good time. That was an eye-opener for me. Up until then I simply thought that any sport or physical education class was going to be dreadful. After that I realized that hey—I actually thrived when I wasn’t being harrassed and insulted all the time.

If there was bullying and beratement in arts classes, I’ve never noticed it. Or if there was, it didn’t seem to be unusually viscious, like it was in the sports classes.

3

Are we talking extra-curricular sports and arts programs?

4

There’s a Guradian article here on the value of drawing, as a skill rather than an art form.

I think Sports should be a compusorly part of the school, they can help build team working skills, hand-eye co-ordination, confidence and of course general fitness levels.

I strongly think the arts should be a part of school, and society as well. I think ‘art’ would be better if it were percieved as an esential integrated part of society, rather than as a separate extra.

I’m just about to read through the recent political compass thread, and post there, then I’ll post some more here.

5

I should point out that either of these things taught badly can ruin a persons appreciation of them for a long time, but I assume we’re debating their inclusion when taught well.

6

Absolutely. The teaching of the arts should primarily take place because we all deserve the opportunity to appreciate them. Any added benefits of improving abilities in other areas, for example, should be viewed as extras.

The same is true of maths, or sciences, or geography,…

7

An Interesting Essay on the value of culture to society, and it’s place in the education system and of Government funding wriiten by Tessa Jowel can be found here

8

I hated most of my P.E. classes. If they had been truly physical education classes, I might have gotten more from them. As it was, most of the classes focused on team sports, and the teachers picked the best athletes in the class and had them pick their teams, alternating. This method was, I feel, guaranteed to demotivate the kids who were already less athletically inclined. This set up the clumsier and less athletic kids up for automatically failing to improve. The result (at least in my experience and the experience of my friends) was to turn out kids who hated the notion of physical activity and who would quit doing it as soon as they could.

I think that a true physical education does have a place in a school’s curriculum, though it shouldn’t just be going out and playing basketball (or whatever) for 45 minutes a day. There should be two parts of the class, one in which the students learn about health issues and physical safety, and one “lab” session, in which the students actually go out and exercise.

For the most part, the exercise/sport sessions should consist of things that the students can use in their adult lives…things like weight training, cardio exercises, stuff like that. Advanced students can substitute basketball or football or other team sport for their PE requirements. Every student should know how to get exercise on his/her own, though, without a team.

The classroom part of the PE should intruduce proper meal selection, nutrition, disease prevention and how to take care of oneself when one DOES get sick, and first aid, at a minimum. I’d also like to include human sexuality in this, but that’s a topic for another thread. My daughter had to take a few health classes and became MUCH more motivated to eat a healthy diet, and the whole family benefitted.

With this two pronged approach, I believe that we could reverse the tendency towards obesity, and generally live better lives. The P.E. classes that I was in were worse than useless, they were detrimental to me. I would have been better served with a study hour than to have gone to most of those PE classes. I did do a lot of walking back then, which kept me in pretty good physical condition, though it didn’t improve my dexterity.

The arts are really too varied to cover. Are we including music? Drama? Language arts? Just about all of them will teach a student to think and learn. In music, particularly, the student will learn teamwork, discipline, and all the other good things that the OP claims will result in a good sports program.

9

That’s an interesting point about the varied nature of the arts, I could spend my life studying just a single aspect and still be learning new things until the end, and still have new things to learn.

Some people might advocate an approach in which you study as widely as possible, but the problem is that you might only skim the surface of the art form, I find that the more I study a particular aspect or style of art, and begin to appreciate the context, which takes time, the more I begin to appreciate the art itself.

My advise would be to teach a way of investigation, and critical thinking ,as approach to understanding any art - that can then be applied to study of specific art forms. Again this relates to my point earlier about the separation of art and society. I believe a degree of anthropology and sociology needs to be taught with the arts in schools. Without understanding the context, it’s very difficult to appreciate a piece of art, you be able to appreciate the skill, but not the cultural value. This was something that was missing in my education. (Until I reached University, where I’m studying for a drama degree, which does include elements of sociology and anthropology as well as political study)

The same is true of sport, and physical activity. There often seems to be a belief that these things are separate from our culture and society. We stratify the arts and sciences far too much IMO.

I’m off to read Theatre in Crisis again, a series of essays on the value of theatre (and art) in contemporary society.

10

I feel a big problem is that many PE teachers didn’t teach the fundamentals of a particular sport. They assumed that everyone knew how to dribble a ball or even knew the rules of the game. If they don’t take the time to teach the fundamentals then some students are never going to catch up.

I think PE should primarily consist of physical activity and leave the sex education and health issues to other classes. There are only so many minutes in the day and if you have people attending a sit down class you’re not going to have any time for physical activity.

I’d like to see a bit more variety for the older kids. The younger kids should probably just stick to regular games.

Sure, all of 'em are covered. I can’t think of one that wouldn’t be good.

Marc