Marcelino Fule Memorial College

M.H. DelPilar St. Brgy. 1 Alaminos, Laguna

Email Add: mfmcollege1946@yahoo.com/Tel No. (049) 252 6960

ARTS: Teaching Arts in Elementary Grades

BEED 3 (Wednesday 1:00 – 3:00 pm)

Santiago (2013) defines Arts Education in the country as being comprised of three distinct periods

1. The Experimental Period (1915-1935) – During this time, Art Education was primarily drawing (it
was a literally called “DRAWING” in the curriculum), where the students learned via imitation,
and the instructional methods were “dull and authoritarian.” Early attempts were made to
correlate drawing with other subjects, such as English, industrial works, and language.
2. The New Movement (1935-1950) – Vicente Dizon is credited by Santiago with starting the New
Movement in Art Education, characterized by a growing understanding of the desired
philosophy for teaching art not only in the elementary grades, but also in high school and
college, and an increasing practically in the teaching of art.
3. The Newer Movement (1950-present) – it was in 1950 that “DRAWING” became :ART
EDUCATION” and when Pablo Victoria, an art professor at the then Philippine Normal College,
pioneered integrating art with other subjects in the curriculum. His 1959 book, Art in the
Elementary School, clarifies and elaborates on the role of both teachers and learners in art
education.

The NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR CULTURE AND THE ARTS (NCCA) is the primary policy-making body
for Philippine culture and the arts. Its programs and policies are what guide government efforts in
conserving history artworks, giving public exposure to the works of Filipino artists, and encouraging a
new generation to explore and invest in Filipino arts.

Today, art education has been integrated into the Basic Education Curriculum under the Music, Arts,
Physical Education, and Health (MAPEH) subject, which receives 4 hours of instruction weekly from
Grade 1 to 10 (DepED 2012). In 2016, the Department of Education introduced a specialized Arts Track
for senior high school students under the K to 12 program with approximately 4,400 students
nationwide as of 2017

BENEFITS OF ART EDUCATION

As future teachers in the field, it is important for you to be fully convinced in your mind of the benefits
of Art Education ands its presence in the curriculum.
 Beyond the obvious benefits of relaxing and enjoyable self-expression, education in the arts has a
number of non-artistic benefits, such as the development of creativity – useful in any subject area – and
being open and receptive to new ideas – also useful in any subject area.

Here are the TEN Benefits to having Art as part of school curriculum:
1. Working in the arts helps learners develop creative problem-solving skills.
2. Teaching through the arts can present difficult concepts visually, making them easier to
understand.
3. Art instruction helps children with the development of motor skills, language skills, social skills,
decision-making, risk-taking, and inventiveness.
4. Visual arts teach learners about color, layout, perspective, and balance; all techniques that are
necessary in presentation (visual digital) of academic work.
5. Integrating art with other disciplines reaches students who might not otherwise be engaged in
classwork.
6. Arts experiences boos critical thinking, teaching students to take the time to be more careful
and thorough in how they observe the world.
7. The arts provide challenges for learners at all levels.
8. Art education connects students with their own culture as well as with the wider world.
9. Young people who participate regularly in the arts (three hours a day on three days each week
through one full year) are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to
participate in a Math and Science fair, or to win an award or writing an essay or poem than
children who do not participate.
10. Greater art education leads to fewer disciplinary infractions and higher attendance, graduation
rates, and test scores.

Learning arts can increase skills, such as exploring, imagining, observing, and reflecting.

Issues in Philippine Art Education

Art educators in the country face an uphill battle as they navigate the educational system and its need to
prioritize its resources – often not in favor of the arts. However, there are other issues facing art
education in the Philippines, some of which are much closer to the classroom.

Problem in Artistic Values

They are problems of perspective, which in turn affect policy, which then affect practice. Four broad
categories are identified here: Teacher Issues, Art as a Subject, Student Discipline, and Art as a Luxury.

1. Teacher Issues
It should come as no surprise that teaching as a whole is not the career of
choice for a majority of Filipinos, with many of its practitioners a victim of the
“mag-teacher ka na lang!” Alongside this, art educators in the country face a
number of self-esteem issues, expressed through statements like “I’m not
talented enough to be a real artist” or “There’s no money in the arts, so I teach
in order to make a living.”

2. Art as a Subject
3. Student Discipline
4. Art as a Luxury
The following are problems related to the physical requirement for teaching art and their availability.
1. Limited Material
2. Workspaces
Perhaps the biggest, most immediate issue when it comes to art educators is
the lack of good training. Teachers by training are specialists, but upon being
deployed in the field – often due to economic reasons – they are often called
upon to teach subjects outside their specialization, leading to half-baked
(“hilaw”) teaching. Anecdotal evidence abounds teachers who had to teach art
despite of having zero training and even zero exposure to art activities since
childhood.
Perhaps because of its initial, utilitarian roots as “drawing,” art in the
curriculum is still often viewed as a “subject” rather than an avenue for self-
expression. This results in a teaching of art that is overly academic, focusing on
facts about art rather than on the practice and creation of art.
When coupled with a lack of adequate teacher training, this encourages a
sterile, static view of art that is only considered “legitimate” if it is comparable
to the work of the “masters,” i.e., museum-standard – something that simply
cannot be achieved by children in the early grades.
Stemming from a utilitarian view of art, many students struggle with
motivation issues due to an unnecessarily vicious cycle of criticism from family,
peers, and ill-equipped teachers, thereby limiting their willingness to invest the
hours needed to master the skills needed to created art.
Another issue noted by many teachers is the lack of student respect toward art
materials. Wastefulness, neglecting to store materials properly, and the lack of
a general sense of order and cleanliness both while and after working are all
sources of great frustration for art educators nationwide.
The popular public view on art in the country is that it is a luxury –
“Pangmayaman lang ‘yan” – nice to have, but nonessential to the average
working Filipino. Art is considered the privilege of the elite – those who do not
have to actually work for a living and can therefore devote the time, energy,
and money needed to participate in artistic endeavors.
Consequently, art is among the lowest subjects in terms of priority when it
comes to issues like budget, time, resources allocation, etc.
Due to lack of adequate support, art materials are scarce in the average
classroom, with art educators relying on the students themselves to provide
the necessary art supplies the class requires.
Stemming from the elitist view of art, there is also a lack of recognition of the
alternative art materials that are available in the immediate environment.
This serves to only propagate the perception that unless it is created with the
so-called “mainstream” art material (i.e., acrylic/oil paint, charcoals, pastel,
etc.) then it is not really art.
Related to the previous problem, many schools have no dedicated space for
 art classes, let alone extracurricular artistic pursuits. Students must make do
with regular classrooms ill-suited for the purpose. As a result, some forms of
artistic expression simply cannot be explored, particularly those that require
more than one class meeting (e.g., painting on canvas, sculpture carving, etc.)
as they raise issues concerning cleanup, storage, maintaining the integrity of
unfinished student work, and so on.
3. Management issues Related to the lack of student respect for art materials and spaces, there is
also a severe lack of awareness as to how to manage and organize an art class
in order to maximize learning and ensure student’s safety. This is especially
important during art activities that involve sharp objects like carving and
sculpture.

Usually, these skills are chalked up to common sense and, thus, taken for
granted. However, there is a need for such management skills to be
intentionally taught, as many students will be experiencing handling and
storing potentially dangerous tools for the very first time in their lives.