....What about the Others?

Tonight I attended the "Walter Kirby" music concert at my sons high school.  It is a music awards show where students share their learning, playing in a competitive environment where winners receive awards which are handed out at end of year award ceremonies. 

There was upwards of 30 participants, both soloists and groups.  Soloists sang and either played an instrument (piano or guitar) or were accompanied by a musician.  Solo musicians were many and varied, playing piano, cello, flute, trumpet, saxophone to name a few.  The music was wide ranging from operatic to modern day and the boys who contributed were between 11 and 18 years of age.

I was struck by the talent that these boys displayed.  They performed with confidence and aplomb.  I could see the look of pleasure each one had as he left the stage, soaking up the adrenalin and the applause from an enthusiastic audience.  As I was enjoying the show and after my son and his ukelele group had performed (an impressive rendition of 'Hoki Mai' accompanied by a pianist), I slipped on my educator hat and began to ruminate over the value of extra curricular activities over and above the 'core subject' areas. 

As I watched the achievements of the students tonight I had to question our systems focus on literacy, numeracy and the sciences.  What would our society be like if we gave equal recognition and importance to the arts and sports?  How successful would our system be if we identified student's strengths and developed them in those areas?  I wonder how classrooms would look if students were taught completely to their area of strength...that's not say they don't learn to read, write and do maths, but that the value of these subjects are equal to their area of strength. 

Often at primary level, we only see glimpses of talent in the children we teach.  We identify students who have strengths in reading, writing and maths, and we develop their strengths within the programme, giving them differentiated advanced rich tasks to develop their cognitive engagement.  We acknowledge the talents of children in sport and the arts through one off sports tournaments, one off music performances and visual art work given through integrated units.  It's up to parents to feed their students talents...to develop them by enrolling them in after school activities that cost more money that in some families is hard to find.  The students who are from families who have difficulty making ends meet, are the ones who tend to slip between the cracks...their talents left behind, forgotten, potential not met in a lifetime.  What a waste.