Expressive arts in secondary schools in Gozo : a critical view

Abstract

In ‘Frames of Mind’ (1983), Howard Gardner identified many different kinds of intelligences. The curriculum should respond to the individual needs and support particular aptitudes and talents. It should give each child increasing opportunities for exercising responsible personal choice as they move through their school career. The title of the third educational objective of the Maltese National Minimum Curriculum is ‘Developing a Sense of Identity through Creative Expression’. This section gives vital importance to the inclusion of expressive arts in our schools. However, while there is a wide consensus acknowledging the need for expressive arts education in a holistic educational programme, few are ready to give curricular currency and value to such assertions. Strategic planning, together with quality management, are the driving force with which a school can enjoy a positive ethos and meet the students' desires. Expressive arts education, like other aspects of human development, is usually marginalized in favour of the other supposedly more important academic subjects. Arts exist to delight the senses, instruct the mind and enlighten the heart. These purposes cannot be thwarted for long. It is my hope that education in Malta will truly give the appropriate meaning to the arts, in order to be able to create a new received tradition which will include all aspects of its cultural accretion, one which will again serve the traditional role the arts have always played in the dissemination of the Maltese national identity.