Elaine Browne.pdf - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

Elaine: En jy gee workshops?
22
O: I used to give workshops. I, I was involved in the Arts in Teachers Initiatives. It was a lot of fun that
programme with Michael Barry and Isaac Matembo and them. I was running the workshop at the St Patric’s
road for the whole year. And the teachers used to go and you were trained in different disciplines. You got
diplomas and things like that. So I went to those workshops as well. It did help. It helped a lot. And Austin ... we
took the children to the gallery with Jenny Fabri and that. So it helped you and it helped those children too. And
now we don’t even take children to the gallery. They don’t even know what it is to appreciate.
Elaine: Anything you want to add?
N: Well we read um in the newspaper that Arts and Culture will fall away and I saw on TV and the news that
Bobby. His name is Bobby. I don’t know what’s his surname that Indian man from the Department, where he
talked about the new syllabus coming out and he said everything’s fixed and everything’s organised and
everything is settled. But the teachers didn’t hear a word at school. We just hear via the grapevine that Arts and
Culture is falling away. But it’s going to be part of LO and EMS is falling away and only from grade 7 the children
will do it. They said on TV, on the news, now the public out there, hear. You understand but they don’t tell us.
The teachers who teach these learning areas, they have never been informed about what’s happening. You see
what I am saying.
M: We should know first.
N: Exactly. But I mean he said on the news because I, I watched the news, it was the 7 o’clock news and they
interviewed him a couple of weeks ago and he said everything’s fine, everything’s settled and all that but we
never heard a word at school . No school knows. You know it is only what we read in the newspaper. And that is
how the Department treat teachers. What they don’t realise, is that you are the most important person. You
should know first and not only should you know but you should also give your input. You know what I mean,
hey?
O: I think the Arts and Culture learning are, is cramped. It’s cramped, it’s got to ...
N: Um, it’s too wide, It’s too wide ..
O: It’s actually. The old syllabus that we know, we don’t only have dance, drama, visual art and music. You’ve
got the needle work aspect coming into it. You’ve got to do needlework. This issue goes with Technology and so
forth. There, there, there are too many things cramped into the Arts and Culture subject already. Besides them
not even been trained in one learning area and at high school... I mean where do the kids go to from grade 7?
They do Arts and Culture in grade 8. I don’t know what they do in grade 8. I asked my daughter for her books.
She can hardly show me anything. Grade 9 ... what happens to that subject after grade 9? It hangs. Why are we
doing something and it falls away? It hangs in the air till grade 9, I am sure. After grade 7, I don’t think the high
schools worry about that. I don’t think they worry about the Arts and Culture.