I have been mulling over the question of whether needlework should be taught in schools for some time now. I am certainly extremely grateful that I did needlework at school. It was where I first learnt Hardanger embroidery, which was the start of my whole embroidery publishing career.<\/p>\n
I know that many schools do not have needlework in the curriculum anymore. I believe that textiles (using sewing machines, garment construction, fashion design etc) is taught as part of the NSW curriculum, but I do not believe that hand embroidery is taught anymore. I suspect that this is largely because the teachers do not have the skills to teach it anymore.<\/p>\n
But, even if the skills were there, should it be taught? Why should hand embroidery be part of the curriculum?<\/p>\n
In this day and age where schooling seems to be all about getting ahead in this cut-throat world of economic rationalism, what is the place for a subject that has basically no economic value? Well, if you think about it like that, there doesn’t seem to be much justification, does there?<\/p>\n
Hand embroidery is essentially a craft and hobby skill. Why would schools want to devote time to teaching that sort of thing? What benefit could there possibly be, in the preparation of students for the big wide world out there? With all the things that teachers DO have to squeeze into school these days, why include something as useless as needlework?<\/p>\n
So, if that’s the way we choose to look at embroidery, what about art? What about music? (Please note, I am definitely NOT suggesting that either of these subjects should be removed from the curriculum!) If a good education includes study of the arts (and I think it should!), why are art and music the two that are seen as acceptable? What about hand embroidery, woodwork, metal work, cooking etc? Why are these vocational subjects being slowly squeezed out of the curriculum?<\/p>\n
Is it because one the whole, only things that we do with our heads are valued these days? After all, blue collar workers (to generalise, those who work with their hands) are paid much less than white collar workers (to generalise, those who work with their brains). Because of the way people are paid for how they use their bodies, society seems to be communicating that you are worth more if you use your brain, rather than your hands. (No matter that people that use their hands have to use their brains to do so!)<\/p>\n
How about we look at it another way. Embroidery is something I do for relaxation. It is my very favourite hobby. As a child, I was always creative, but I hadn’t yet learned needlework. Now that I have, it is my favourite thing to do to relax. But is school the place to learn things that are essentially only useful as hobbies? If the answer is no, then why are art and music included in the curriculum?<\/p>\n
I mean, how many people actually make money out of art and music? Yes, some do, but for the most part, society uses these activities as pleasurable ones for relaxation and enjoyment, outside their working (economically productive) lives. Is it because there are other skills and disciplines that students learn from studying these arts? I would suggest that the answer is yes.<\/p>\n
Studies have definitely shown that studying music is good for you. It helps brain development, coordination, self-expression etc. It utilises skills that take time to learn, promoting perseverence and delayed gratification. There are many more benefits. The same could no doubt be said for art. Actually, I think the same could also be said for learning embroidery.<\/p>\n
So there is little economic benefit in learning needlework. But there IS educational benefit.<\/p>\n
Please, can we have embroidery, patchwork, quilting etc as part of school curriculums again? I’ll teach it – I don’t mind!<\/p>\n
What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have been mulling over the question of whether needlework should be taught in schools for some time now. I am certainly extremely grateful that I did needlework at school. It was where I first learnt Hardanger embroidery, which was the start of my whole embroidery publishing career.<\/p>\n
I know that many schools do not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embroidery-musings","category-teaching-embroidery","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}