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The Place of Art in Education Text

By Golam Mortuja

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PROSE : NANDALAL BOSE [1882-1999]

The Place of Art in Education : Text

Full Text

The Place of Art in Education : Nandalal Bose [ 1882-1999]

Among those things that man has devised to acquire knowledge, or seek inner delight with, language has an important place. It is the vehicle for literature, science, and philosophy. Literature certainly provides man inner delight, but its field of expression is limited. Art, music, dance, and the like make up for this.  They have their own specialities of expression as literature has its. Man apprehends the world with his mind and senses, derives aesthetic delight, and communicates this to others. Education in arts heightens man’s knowledge and aesthetic experience and trains him in various modes of expression. This education in art, music and dance cannot be achieved through the medium of reading and writing, like the ear cannot do what the eye is meant to do.

If the objective of our education is total development, art training should have the same status and importance as reading and writing. But the provision that our universities make for this is sorely inadequate at present. It would seem that this is due to the general notion that art is the exclusive preserve of a few professionals and common people have nothing to do with it.When the educated do not feel any sense of shame at not understanding art, what question can there be of commoners? They cannot differentiate between a painting and a photograph. They gape in amazement at Japanese dolls as if they are great specimens of art. Garish German wrappers in red, blue and purple do not strain their eyes but give them pleasure. On grounds of utility they use tin containers in place of (elegant) earthen pitchers they can easily lay their hands on. The educated public of this country and its universities are mainly responsible for this. A cursory look at our educational scene will reveal that, while this country’s cultural life has fanned out, its aesthetic sensibilities have grown distressingly worse. The only redress for this lies in spreading art education amongst the so-called educated public, as they set the standards for the people at large.

The absence of a sense of beauty not only cheats man of aesthetic experience, but it also harms his physical and mental well-being. Those who lack this sense and litter rubbish in their houses and courtyards, keep themselves and their surroundings filthy, spit betel-juice on their walls, streets, even railway coaches, harm their own health and that of others. They contaminate society with diseases on one hand and their despicable standards of behaviour on the other.

There are some amongst us who think that art is the domain for the rich and the pleasure-loving and want to banish it with contempt from their daily lives. They forget the vitality of a work of art lies in its sense of beauty and order, not in its money value. A poor Santhal sweeps and mops his hut, stacks in order his earthen pots and tattered quilts; an educated college student keeps his clothes and things in disorganised mess in his seemingly palatial hostel room or lodging. For the poor Santhal the sense of beauty is an essential part of his life and, so, vital; for the rich man’s son it is superficial, so, lifeless. I often see our educated men advertise their devotion to art by showing framed pin-ups side by side with good paintings; I see in the hostel rooms shirts hanging from picture frames, teacups and combs littering the study table, paper flowers stuck into used cocoa tins. And for dress, I see people use the open-breasted jacket with the ‘dhoti’, high-heeled shoes with the saree. Regardless of whether we are materially affluent or not, this widespread disproportion and lack of taste is a sure indication of our poverty in aesthetic sensibilities.

Some pose the question, “Will art give us a livelihood?” Here we need to remember that just as there are two aspects to the practice of literature, one concerned with the cultivation of knowledge and aesthetic pleasure and another with professional returns, there are two sides to art too; you may call one fine art and the other functional art. Fine art liberates our mind from the constraints of sorrows and conflicts of our daily lives into a world of aesthetic delight, while, with its touch of magic, functional art brings beauty to the objects of our daily use, and to our lives, and provides us with means of livelihood. In fact our country’s economic decline has followed closely the decay of its functional arts. So to exclude art from the sphere of our needs is harmful to the economic well-being of the country as well.

This lack of art education has not only deprived the present course of our lives of beauty, it has also estranged us from our past heritage. Because our eyes are untrained we have remained ignorant and insensitive to the glory of our past painting, sculpture and architecture; foreign connoisseurs have had to come and expound it to us. To our shame, even our present-day art does not get any recognition in our country until it finds approval in foreign markets. 

Let us discuss now in a general way the remedy for this. The roots of art education lie in the observation of nature and good works of art with dedicated attention, living in close contact with them and understanding them with the assistance of men with developed aesthetic sensibilities. Each school and university should provide a place for art studies with other studies, making it compulsory. It should provide the students with time and the environment to get acquainted with Nature. Training in drawing will develop their powers of observation and this in turn will give them better insight into literature, philosophy and science. It will be wrong on our part to expect, however, that the provision of facilities for art studies in an institution will make all its students artists, leave alone good artists, like no one can become a poet by just passing a course in poetry an institution might offer. 

Firstly, good paintings, sculpture and other specimens of fine and functional arts (or in their absence, good reproductions or photographs of these) should be displayed in the class-rooms, libraries, studies and living rooms of the students.

Secondly, we should get well-qualified people to write readable books on art with good reproductions and historical texts, in ample measure.

Thirdly, students should be introduced through films to selected examples of art, of this country and elsewhere, from time to time.

Fourthly, students should accompany qualified teachers to museums and picture galleries to see distinguished examples of the art of the past. When it is possible for schools to take students out to play football matches, it should not be impossible to take them to museums and picture galleries. One should have to keep in mind that a direct encounter with an art object will do more to arouse their aesthetic vision than hearing a hundred lectures. Seeing good paintings and sculpture, whether or not they understand them fully, will train their eyes, strengthen their powers of discernment, and gradually awaken their aesthetic sensibilities.

Fifthly, to get students into an encounter with Nature we should hold seasonal festivals, including displays of the season’s fruits and flowers, and we should try to familiarise them with those beautiful creations in art and literature these have given rise to.

Sixthly, students should be introduced to Nature’s own festival of the seasons, to see with their own eyes and enjoy the rice fields and lotus ponds in autumn, the carnival of palash and shimul flowers in spring. This is essential for the town-dweller; though, for the rural boys, pointing them out may be enough. For these seasonal festivals, one needs to declare special holidays and hold picnics and games, encourage wearing of seasonal costumes. Once the students get acquainted with Nature, and learn to love it, their aesthetic sensibilities will never run dry for, through the ages, it is Nature that has provided the source material for all artistic creation. 

Lastly, the school should have an art festival some time during the year. Each student should participate in it devotedly with something he has made with his own hand, however simple. All these should be put together and shown as reverential offerings. An effort should be made to give the festival a total shape and beauty with music, dances and processions; the time of the festival should be decided according to the location.

Golam Mortuja

Hello! I'm Golam Mortuja is here to share with you my own creative English study materials from pre-primary level to master's and higher English competitive level for your betterment in English language and literature. So, stay updated.

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