Lorde's high school drama
The Grammy star’s mum says the arts gave her daughter the confidence to conquer the world. WHEN ELLA Yelich-O’Connor was six her mother noticed she lacked the confidence of her older sister, so enrolled her in drama classes that had a profound effect on the multi- Grammy award- winning 17-year-old we now know as Lorde.
‘‘Drama classes definitely, absolutely and undeniably increase confidence,’’ said her mother Sonja Yelich.
She has nothing but praise for the opportunities – academic and cultural – provided by schools the four Yelich-O’Connor children attended, but Yelich was never afraid to take them out of class to visit art galleries, spend the day painting, visit book stores, or make pottery.
‘‘ I’ve never never thought for once I shouldn’t have a day off school to go and do this with my kids. Yes, school is important but there are other things as well that are just as important as school.’’
It has been difficult for researchers to prove the substantive influence of arts on education. But a new Australian study has found children who participate in the arts are better off academically and in their personal lives than other students. Arts students have higher motivation at school, better engagement in class, higher selfesteem and greater life satisfaction.
It’s no wonder the principal of New Zealand’s only arts- focused school says this country’s education system does not invest enough time or support in the arts.
‘‘We need to realise the value is there. We certainly get it back through social development, behaviour, enthusiasm for being at school. And that is very important,’’ said David Selfe, the principal of The Corelli International Academic School of the Arts.
The school provides the standard academic curriculum, but 35 per cent of the students’ time is devoted to the arts, often meaning extended time in class: A typical school day can run from 8am till 5pm. Last year the school had 84 different public performances by its students.
But the school is not a farm for concert pianists and ballet dancers, the idea is to create a more rounded student.
‘‘You may want to be an architect, but after graduating from arts school you will be a more creative architect, a better engineer, you will be a person in medicine who is innovative. It is all that ‘other’ side of the brain thinking, and the capacity to be allowed to do that,’’ Selfe said.
A more diverse curriculum can also benefit students who struggle in traditional education environments. ‘‘ The arts offer opportunities for children to communicate in non-verbal and multimodal ways through sound, symbol and gesture,’’ said Robyn Trinick, a lecturer in Music Education at the University of Auckland.
Selfe argues the reason many New Zealand children have a cursory and limited involvement in arts is because those subjects are squeezed out of the curriculum by time tables ‘‘ crowded’’ with accounting or science.
‘‘ The world has changed; we need to make sure we don’t get left behind in New Zealand,’’ he said, adding there should be at least two more arts- based schools in New Zealand.
And if any other argument is needed, just look at the YelichO’Connor family.
‘‘I have always encouraged my kids to go through with an art,’’ Sonja Yelich says. ‘‘I can’t imagine what it would be like for a family just to encourage science- based subjects. I think it is vital you have a balance.’’