“By cutting [arts] education, you cut off the idea of people being inventive and being creative in areas like engineering and science. It’s about possibilities - not about following something A , B and C - but it’s about saying ‘what if?’ and having a base in a creative practice.
“We have so many great artists and great thinkers and inventors in this country and it has come through the idea of a sense of possibility, and arts education gives you that sense of possibility.
“The two leading people in contemporary arts today - Damien Hirst and [the late] Alexander McQueen - who have made hundreds of millions of pounds for this country, are both white working class who would never have got a foot in the door if it wasn’t for arts education.
“Cutting arts education is a disaster and streaming is a disaster.”
Who said these words? A politician? A teacher? Many will have expressed similar opinions time and time again. But no - these passionate words were uttered by none other than Oscar-winning director and writer Steve McQueen, when Tes sat down with him this week.
McQueen has brought us films like 12 Years of Slave, Shame and, more recently, Widows. Now he’s turning his attention to education - including the 11-plus and grammar schools.
“You can’t separate kids and say, ‘He’s better than her,’ at a certain point because everyone is evolving. It’s a nonsense.
“You’re judging a kid at 11 years old from what they could do then, not what they could do tomorrow or how he or she is going to develop. It’s a nightmare, and what you do for the kids who have not been chosen into grammar schools is you make them feel less than.”
McQueen is halfway through a project aiming to photograph every Year 3 class in London, which he describes as “a portrait of London now which is also relevant in the future”.
Discussing his own school experience, the film director remembered having to wear an eye patch over his good eye and sit at the front. He also said that he “found a way” to deal with his dyslexia and was amazed to get a grade C in O-level English, even though he “couldn’t read and write very well”.
