THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
A Transatlantic team is bringing a laugh-out-loud one-woman show, Bad Teacher, to the world famous Edinburgh Fringe. The play tackles the outrageous expectations that the UK educational system sets for students and teachers alike. It's based on writer/performer Erin Holland’s experience teaching in British secondary schools. Erin is currently Head of Drama at a London secondary school and Grace O'Keefe, Bad Teacher's director/producer, is a former teacher from the US. Below is Erin's take on the continued cuts to Arts Education in the UK.
Over the past 12 years, Michael Gove led a charge of Conservative Education Secretaries, all trying to leave their stamp on education policy by reshaping the British curriculum to the detriment of the Arts. The Tory bred EBacc, established after the 2010 general election, demands a focus on core subjects, forcing pupils to choose only one Arts subject, thus creating a long term negative impact on the wellbeing and future prospects of young people.
The government’s policies suggest the Arts, and specifically Drama, are worthless subjects despite ample evidence to the contrary. Economically, the Arts and Culture sector contributes £8-10 billion to the UK economy annually. The UK’s creative output set us apart as world leaders. The Edinburgh Fringe, the largest fringe festival in the world, is just one example of the UK’s importance to culture on a global stage.
Furthermore, Drama is an invaluable subject for the academic development of young people. Drama is the only subject on the British Curriculum that applies all eight intelligences (logical, linguistic, spatial, musical, kinaesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal and naturalistic) within one lesson. And yet, the government continues to drive the message into schools across the country that Drama is an unimportant subject, relegated to an extracurricular activity, absorbed by other subjects like English or removed from the curriculum entirely.
I earned my PGCE in Drama with English, as the individual Drama PGCE no longer existed. I paid £10,000 in fees while working in schools four days a week for a year, receiving no extra funding, whereas my counterparts training in subjects like Science and Maths would receive a bursary equivalent to a year’s starting salary. The conservatives are trying to discourage Arts teachers from training, exacerbating the country’s teacher retention issue.
Since the Tories entered power in 2010, Drama GCSE entry numbers have decreased by 30%. Between 2010 and 2020 Drama A Level entries decreased by 49%. And in 2021, the government approved a 50% funding cut to Arts courses across higher education, thus devaluing the Arts as a viable career choice and as a source of culture and economic growth.
Although it is in keeping with patriarchal patterns of history, it blows my mind that a group of privately educated, middle class, and mostly white men get to dictate that this area of study should be of no importance for generations to come. It makes no sense economically, academically, or with regards to the mental health and wellbeing of our students.
Where will our next generation of writers, directors, actors, singers, designers and artists come from if you force them to believe the only road to success is through Science, Maths & English?
Are you an American expat with experience of the UK education system – as a parent, student or teacher? What do you think of it? How does it compare with the US system? Let us know here.
You can see previews of Bad Teacher in London on the following dates:
July 17, 3pm, at Etcetera Theatre
July 26 and 28, 7pm, at Bread and Roses
July 29 and 30, 7:30pm, at Theatre 503
And then at the Edinburgh Fringe, August 3rd-29th (excl. 15th), 2:45pm, at Underbelly Bristo Square
