ISSUES IMPACTING ON MY TEACHING THE ARTS R-7.
"The growing concerns about increasing marginalisation of art in the primary school curriculum and in courses of primary initial teacher education-.
The attitudes of elementary classroom teacher's towards art have a considerable influence on children when learning the arts (Grace, M. 2001). This statement is true whether the teacher chooses to include art in the curriculum or to ignore it. The lack of interest and the growing importance of The Arts has come to an alarming level. Pre-service teachers are not receiving the appropriate education about how to teach The Arts to children R-7 and therefore the teacher's curriculums are no longer paying the appropriate amount of attention to arts education. "Pre-service teaching of elementary generalists is sometimes considered the black hole' of art education-, (Duncum, P. 1999). How can arts classes for potential teachers be taught so that art becomes part of the curriculum? What problems do undergraduates face that act as obstacles to including art in their classrooms once they are teachers? How can undergraduates be prepared to include art discussions and art making in their curriculum when there are so many other more legitimised and extreme demands on their energy and time? These are some of the questions that need answers if this issue is to improve for the benefit of both the teachers and more importantly the children. .
Issue 2.
"The need for art educator's to accommodate for a multi-cultural society, when looking at the curriculum for R-7-.
Art is something people do to give them a sense of themselves, both in thinking and in doing. The way art is made, received, used and valued reflect the values, mores, institutions and ways of doing things held in common by any group of people (Anderson T. 1995). Just like the words of Sarup, "it is language that speaks the person rather than the person that speaks the language- (Sarup L.
