Schoolchildren will be taken to the opera and theatre under government plans to offer all teenagers at least five hours of culture a week.
This sounds like the first ever case of dumbing up to me.
Culture, teenagers. Culture, teenagers. Culture, teenagers.
Nope. No matter how often you repeat the words, it don’t sound right.
Teenagers are overwhelmed with culture as it is. It comes at them in great electronic waves 24 hours a day.
So it depends on what kind of culture you mean and the government is pretty open about it – they mean the stuffy sort. The other is youth culture and doesn’t count. Even if we are talking about Bob Dylan – who is now coming up to pensioner culture, like a nice game of bingo – that doesn’t count either.
They mean opera and ballet and recitals and art galleries and avante garde arty-farty films that no-one understands or cares about.
Somewhere in this country, I am sure, there are some – as many as several, perhaps – teenagers who are just gagging for the opportunity to go to the opera. Finding them and getting them all in the same mini-bus might prove a problem, but if they think it’s worth the effort...
Ballet, I’m afraid, is just a load of old Bolshoi to most teenagers. But they are dying to know how a man in a bear suit is worth the Turner Prize, rather than a job handing out supermarket leaflets. We all are.
I am not decrying teenagers. I survived four of my own and know a little about what makes them tick, mostly like a UXB. This plan could make them explode.
I can’t see how the government is going to package culture and deliver it as regularly as football coaching sessions.
There’s never been so much culture about, but is there really that much?
Once they’ve done the rounds will they want to do it again? Can teachers really be bothered, or are we talking double-time here?
Is there any point? How many cellists does the country need, for heaven’s sake? But isn’t the likeliest outcome that they will be turned off culture?
Most won’t take up an instrument or start to paint or be inspired to pen an ode or stain glass, rub brass or anything else that’s coming their way.
Besides, it’s not new, all this stuff is readily available and has been for years. It’s one of those initiative thingies that pop up every now and again.
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit