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Children’s Laureate wants national day of drawing
New children’s Laureate Anthony Browne is launching a campaign to bring back creativity to the classroom by getting children to draw.
The children’s books’ illustrator and author, who took over his new post last month, is concerned that because of the pressure of national curriculum tests, priority is given to reading at the expense of drawing.
He believes that they should be on an even footing and wants one day to be set aside every year for millions of children to play a game that would encourage art.
Based on something he used to play as a child, he has dubbed it "the shape game". Each pupil would draw a shape and then pass it on to another to develop as an illustration or drawing.
He said that another advantage to his idea, in addition to encouraging drawing, would be that there were no winners or losers.
In his first few weeks in the post, which was set up by the reading charity Booktrust, he has become embroiled in the controversy over children’s authors being forced to undergo vetting before they can work in schools. Philip Pullman, Anthony Horowitz and Michael Morpurgo are among a number who have said they will boycott working in schools rather than undergo vetting.
But Mr Browne, who will hold the post of Children’s Laureate for two years, disagrees with them. "Why should we be special?" he said. "I just found the views that Philip Pullman et al were making were arrogant – saying it was an insult to suggest to that we might have abused children. Peripatetic music teachers and dinner ladies have to undergo this vetting. Why shouldn’t we?"
Source: The Independent
Posted: August 4th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Michael Morpurgo, Philip Pullman
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