“It’s just a minor subject but there are so many activities to be done. Such a major-wannabe!”
MAPEH education has always been a contested area. Many MAPEH educators have defended the arts in the school curriculum by emphasizing their role in student’s moral and individual development.
I, myself, who is a MAPEH teacher ever since I started teaching, watched how the neutral expressions of the students turned to the annoyed one every time I make them paint and instruct them to perform physical activities. How I started to listen and observe the changes of their tone when I started telling their art assignments and music performance and how their cheerful voice became dreadful while complaining that the activities will only make them tired. And how my heart aches every time those hurtful words escape their mouth, sprouting insults aimed at the subject that I teach and loved ever since.
But…teaching has never been perfect for the faint-hearted. Typically, experiencing those will make you want to quit. Yet you shouldn’t because as a teacher you should strike the spark of information to capture the attention and imagination among students while impelling them into action. So, what’s left to do? Teach them to love that subject that you learned to love without force.
Merging technology with the traditional way of teaching is an excellent way to constantly get the attention and participation of the students. Yes, coping up should be in your to-do-list because nothing about teaching is one-size fits all. For example, connecting those music histories or composers to modern music genres will keep your students interested and will help them understand it easier. Going outside when teaching arts will help them appreciate the natural art that’ll activate their creativity and imagination because the educational environment isn’t confined to the classroom and knowledge comes in bits and bytes.
MAPEH may be one of the most undervalued subjects all over the whole world by some individual but it cannot change the fact that MAPEH helps a lot in building one’s creativity, artistry, confidence, and imagination. Twentieth-century German philosopher Ernst Cassirer once said, “Science gives us order in thoughts, morality gives us order in actions; art gives us order in apprehension of visible, tangible and audible appearances.”
Subject’s weight may vary due to one’s interest, strengths, and talents. But as a MAPEH teacher, the conveyance of information and revelation of new ideas through a communication and performance is all up to you. After all, seeking the inner artist of every individual in a classroom full of active creators of knowledge in the centre of lifelong learning is worth the sweat and hard work.
By: Edjel C. Fabian | T-I | BNHS
