Page 176 - Gonzaga at 60
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176
GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
All images across these two pages are from the
Sports Day Exhibition
nature of art and protects its integrity by using assessment as its means of evaluaion. To avoid
standardising expectaions and criteria, allowance is made in the marking scheme for personal
interpretaion, style, expressiveness and imaginaion. The student is given ime to think, develop
ideas progressively and become involved in the person-centred process that is art. That the new
course ofers the best possible art educaion in principle was recognised at an internaional
educaion conference of the Council of Europe in London in 1990. The same syllabus was praised
for its excellence and exemplary pracice. It was a cause of expressed envy among the eighteen
represented countries that it was the result of a collaboraion of art teachers and the Irish Art
Educaion Inspectorate. (The syllabus commitee was made up mainly of pracising art teachers.)
In the early ‘sevenies, with the ever increasing demand for quaniiable results, art was
condiionally promoted to the status of ‘points earner’ in the Leaving Cert by the addiion of an
art history (informaion) component. The fact that both are evaluated in once of test condiions
at Leaving Cert level is only favourable in so far as the subject didn’t become redundant by being
omited from the points race. In the early ‘ninies it was due to follow the example of the Junior
Cert model but it never did. History shows us that art doesn’t lourish in adverse condiions. In an
invigilated exam, rigid ime constraints, the risks of experimentaion, self consciousness and fear
of failure could all militate against the student’s success. You might say that the same adverse
condiions prevail in all subject examinaions, but in art they seriously interfere with the creaive
process itself. The level of creaivity we may expect from a student corresponds to the degree
to which he is free from any repressive mechanism which could inhibit his impulse, his imagery
or his access to his own spirit. We art teachers sill await the promised changeover to the junior
cert model. When it comes and it will because it has to, it will be possible
to say that all of the condiions are in place for art to fully lourish
in Gonzaga. But already, with the rich Jesuit
ethos and the value it places on
the afecive in educaion, with a
fully supporive management, a
fully commited art department
and over ive hundred creaive
young souls, the spirit of art is fully
lourishing in Gonzaga College. It has been
for a long ime.
Darragh O’Connell
Darragh O’Connell has taught art at Gonzaga for over thirty years
GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
All images across these two pages are from the
Sports Day Exhibition
nature of art and protects its integrity by using assessment as its means of evaluaion. To avoid
standardising expectaions and criteria, allowance is made in the marking scheme for personal
interpretaion, style, expressiveness and imaginaion. The student is given ime to think, develop
ideas progressively and become involved in the person-centred process that is art. That the new
course ofers the best possible art educaion in principle was recognised at an internaional
educaion conference of the Council of Europe in London in 1990. The same syllabus was praised
for its excellence and exemplary pracice. It was a cause of expressed envy among the eighteen
represented countries that it was the result of a collaboraion of art teachers and the Irish Art
Educaion Inspectorate. (The syllabus commitee was made up mainly of pracising art teachers.)
In the early ‘sevenies, with the ever increasing demand for quaniiable results, art was
condiionally promoted to the status of ‘points earner’ in the Leaving Cert by the addiion of an
art history (informaion) component. The fact that both are evaluated in once of test condiions
at Leaving Cert level is only favourable in so far as the subject didn’t become redundant by being
omited from the points race. In the early ‘ninies it was due to follow the example of the Junior
Cert model but it never did. History shows us that art doesn’t lourish in adverse condiions. In an
invigilated exam, rigid ime constraints, the risks of experimentaion, self consciousness and fear
of failure could all militate against the student’s success. You might say that the same adverse
condiions prevail in all subject examinaions, but in art they seriously interfere with the creaive
process itself. The level of creaivity we may expect from a student corresponds to the degree
to which he is free from any repressive mechanism which could inhibit his impulse, his imagery
or his access to his own spirit. We art teachers sill await the promised changeover to the junior
cert model. When it comes and it will because it has to, it will be possible
to say that all of the condiions are in place for art to fully lourish
in Gonzaga. But already, with the rich Jesuit
ethos and the value it places on
the afecive in educaion, with a
fully supporive management, a
fully commited art department
and over ive hundred creaive
young souls, the spirit of art is fully
lourishing in Gonzaga College. It has been
for a long ime.
Darragh O’Connell
Darragh O’Connell has taught art at Gonzaga for over thirty years
