Elaine Browne.pdf - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

20
Music, I don’t have a clue. We were writing the Common Exams now in June. I don’t know what a C Major is. My
children couldn’t do a C Major either, you know. So I just feel that um, like Mr O said now. Every ... a person
must be appointed you know for the music part, for the visual art part. Ek kan nie teken om my lewe te save nie.
Ek teken nog stokmannetjies. So how can I teach children to, to do Visual Art. And um, I have been to a few
workshops with Dr De Villiers at the Teachers Centre and um ... (everybody laughs). She, she... Her main focus
when I went, was with dance. But it was cultural dance, you know, the rain dance and the ... (all talked together)
dance, yes those dances. And you had to choose what dance you were going to do. Now how do I put it. Yes
actually, uncomfortable ... For me it is still a learning process. I actually just wing the subject because I have to. I
don’t actually have a passion for the subject. I’ll go to other people and ask. And the other thing um ...There’s
not a good theory um, um where, where Arts and Culture is concerned.
M: Daar is nie ‘n regte handboek wat jy kan gebruik nie. (Everybody speak together saying, ja, ja, ja.)
N: And also the LO’s, it is not so clear. Like, if you look at Life Orientation. LO 1 to LO 4 is something you can do
totally on its own. But in Arts and Culture it’s mixed. You know when you do one, one, one exercise, it is a
mixture of LO’s that you are doing. You know it’s not clear and precise telling you exactly what to do. Like with
English and Life Orientation, those other learning areas. And like M said, we majored in English. I think when
you’re an English teacher they see you as creative and you are. So OK! You must be creative if you’re an English
teacher. So Life Orientation, Arts and Culture, let’s give you those learning areas. (She laughs) Although I must
say, I love it.
O: Now I encountered this. They are not teaching it in isolation and it should be taught in isolation. They...
everything they want to develop into a composite at the end. Which you got to take a bit of music, take a bit of
drama, take a bit of visual art and combine it and you must have something. And it does not work in every case.
May be, because may be you do different things and it cannot create a composite with those things. And most
of the times you go to training, they tell you, you got to create a composite at the end. Those four disciplines go
together and create a play and do something. And there’s no time for that, there’s no space. We spoke about
the classes. We don’t have a class that is equipped for Arts and Culture. You cannot do Visual Art on a desk like
this. The children cannot draw on these desks!
Elaine: So do you work in a room like this?
O: Yes, yes ...
N: Yes, in your classroom, when you do dance, you have to move all the desks to the back and dance in front.
O: May be you want to use A3 pages. You cannot work on A3 pages, we do not have proper desks.
N: When we paint, we go outside and you must see what the stoop looks like.
O: We don’t have a sink. You really need a sink in your class otherwise you cannot tackle painting and it
becomes a big problem.