Cant do? CAN DO !!!

No, this has got nothing to do with Barack Obama or USA presidential election slogans; its just an opportunity for me to play the grumpy old man. (Since Im writing this in the run up to Christmas!) The other day, watching the news about all the snow and the appalling number of school closures, I was struck by one head teacher, who had kept her school open, saying she was proud of her schools can do philosophy. Good for her! I think schools have a duty to stay open except in the direst circumstances and the responsibility for getting the children there (and back again) should lie with the parents, not with the school. Yes, weve heard all the arguments about school buses and the dangers of driving in bad weather. Why should we assume that parents are incapable of making sensible decisions about the safety of their own children? If the kids can get there and back again safely, then the school should be doing its job, staying open, looking after them and educating them. Lets be positive, not negative about these things. Remember the Windmill Theatre? They never closed! We had a big concert in Stockton cancelled recently because of the snow. All but three of our orchestra managed to get there, and pretty well all the choir, soloists and conductor managed it too, about 200 people turned up for the afternoon rehearsal. We would all have done the concert too but the forecast was very bad, it began to snow heavily again, we had to think about everybody getting home and we probably wouldnt have got more than a few in the audience anyway. Common sense prevailed and to cancel was the right decision. However, one of my earliest childhood memories was going to listen to Handels Messiah in Ripon Cathedral when I was about five. Snow lying deep everywhere, heavy snowflakes fluttering in the street lights no question of cancelling and the Cathedral was packed! How did we manage it then? It wouldnt happen nowadays! Thousands of passengers stranded at Heathrow? A spokesman told us on the news that Morrisons had managed to clear the snow from all their car parks but, oh no, its impossible to clear a runway! How about giving all those passengers a shovel and letting them clear a few square metres each? Oh no, cant do that, health & safety! Whats the point of all this? Im sure we can all think of hundreds of pathetic examples of cant do attitudes. The world seems to be populated by jobsworths who will find any and every reason or excuse for not doing something. We encounter them time and again in local and national government. This negative attitude seems to be endemic in every kind of bureaucracy. Weve heard of institutional racism how about institutional negativity? It seems to me that one area of life where, more often than not, we encounter a much more positive, can do attitude is in the field of the arts. Is this because artists dont live in the real world? Far from it! Being an artist is such a precarious and insecure way of life that we have to be far worldlier and street-wise than you would think, just to survive.

The attitude of most artists is that, if a thing is worth doing, lets just get on and do it! Obstacles are there to be overcome; problems are there to be solved. If people tell you it cant be done but you think it can, then just get on with it and prove them wrong. If we want to live in a can do society, where people have positive attitudes, strive for achievement, aim for the best possible standards, have high aspirations and fight against the odds for success regardless of their backgrounds then we have to educate our children and students accordingly, including in the arts! Neglecting the arts in primary and secondary schools is bad enough. Cutting back LEA expenditure on music and the performing arts is even worse. Raising university tuition fees, cutting teaching budgets and axing courses in the humanities is, frankly, insane! It isnt impossible to fund education properly! It isnt impossible to fund the arts properly! It is worth doing so lets just get on and do it. All it takes is the will and for enough people to stand up and fight for what is worthwhile. Happy New Year lets make it a good one! Xenophon Kelsey (December 2010)