Minister Bijsterveld of OCW is going to ask the country for advice. A so-called internet consultation was launched this week on her ministry's intention to abolish Cultural and Artistic Education for Havo and VWO pupils. 'The Field' can now respond, so we suggest you make your views, and especially your substantive arguments known to the ministry, via this link: http://internetconsultatie.nl/bovenbouwhavovwo.
We ourselves are already doing a little foreshadowing, which of course may also be discussed via a little debate in the comments below:
For abolition of CKV:
Making art and culture a compulsory subject was the minisiterie's biggest miss. After all, it creates compulsion and duty, and if art has nothing to do with anything, it is compulsion and duty. Nothing worse than an unmotivated CKV teacher spinning off boring lessons for a rioting 3 HAVO class. Theatre-makers abhor the so-called 'CKV performances' with an auditorium full of phoning and whatsapping adolescents, accompanied by totally overworked teachers who would also have preferred to watch 'Road Abuse' on their free evening. Museum visitors also don't want to be trampled on their quiet weekday meditation tour of the museum by screaming ritalin-dealing ADHD patients. In short: go learn Dutch and Maths, and leave the art to the people who really love it, and let teachers who are really motivated be really free to show a few paintings in their hour of biology as well, about which they can tell glowing stories.
Against abolishing CKV:
Without Cultural and Arts Education, high school students graduate as cultural illiterates. And this in a world that increasingly demands cultural positioning, and therefore knowledge. In the countries around us, culture and art are central to almost every conversation, and the media are full of culture. There, art is part of the package with which an adult citizen approaches life. A person educated in the Netherlands will only be able to talk about football. Compulsion is just as well, because it forces even the inveterate culture hater to think about what makes life beautiful apart from pills, football and porn. eventually, even the culture-hating hooligan will be converted and walk into a museum for once without wrecking things.
More arguments? In the comments.
The link to the comsultatue: http://internetconsultatie.nl/bovenbouwhavovwo
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