Music|Education Minister Anders Adlercreutz says he feels that the guidelines have been overinterpreted when the school concert was cancelled.
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Minister of Education Anders Adlercreutz defends the presentation of art that draws from Christianity in schools.
The school concert of the Finnish Baroque Orchestra and the Helsinki Chamber Choir was canceled due to religious references.
According to Adlercreutz, understanding our cultural history requires knowing the Christian tradition.
Parents of non-religious students must be told about the presentation of religious art in schools.
Minister of Education Anders Adlercreutz (r) defends the presentation of art that draws on Christianity in schools.
There was a discussion about the topic when HS told on Friday about the case where the school concert of the Finnish Baroque Orchestra and the Helsinki Chamber Choir was canceled by the school principal’s decision. According to the representative of the orchestra, the reason was that the concert program contained religious references.
“As I interpret the instructions myself, I think they make such a baroque concert possible. I personally feel that they have been overinterpreted,” Adlercreutz tells STT.
Adlercreutz writes on Saturday in his blog postthat it is important to make all dimensions of our cultural history visible in school education.
According to him, European and Finnish cultural history is strongly connected to the thinking and activities of the Christian Church.
“It is important to emphasize to the students what the issue is and to place the art experience in that temporal frame of reference in order to understand it,” Adlercreutz tells STT.
Now in the canceled school concert, the repertoire would have included excerpts from the classics of Baroque music Georg Friedrich Handelin Messiah– from an oratorio whose text is based on the Bible.
According to Adlercreutz, you can’t get into baroque music without understanding its connection to the church, and you can’t know the history of Finnish architecture if you ignore the traditions of church construction.
“I encourage schools to continue to offer their students the widest possible coverage of our cultural history; so Handel, Botticelli, Simberg than Angel tooall of whose art draws from the Christian tradition,” Adlercreutz writes.
Perustuslakivaliokunnan chairman Heikki Vestman (kok) considers the cancellation of the baroque concert to be “the actual tip of the iceberg”.
”PeV:n [perustuslakivaliokunnan] however, tradition containing elements referring to religion and the nurturing of cultural heritage in the school have not been considered problematic in the guidelines,” writes Vestman message service in X.
Religious performing art in schools is not prohibited, but the parents of a non-religious student must be informed about it, and if necessary, the school must offer the non-religious student cultural offerings of a similar level instead.
Earlier this week, it was reported how the Equality and Equality Board had issued a statement that the school in Hämeenlinna should pay the parents of a non-religious student EUR 1,500 in compensation, because the school had organized a religious music concert, the content of which had not been informed to the student’s parents in advance.
The board had also complained about two other concerts organized at the same school. They had performed some songs. which had a spiritual content, but in the board’s opinion there was no reason to pay compensation for them.
Board of Education has given schools instructions on religious occasions and joint celebrations. Head of Education Policy Jaakko Salo The teaching trade association OAJ considers the guidelines to be valid.
The instructions themselves are good and clear, there is nothing unclear. But as it says in the instructions, these are questions that always involve interpretation, says Salo.
Salo considers it important that schools clearly inform guardians about events and their content in advance. Then the guardians have time to react if they feel that the opportunity does not fit their outlook on life.
According to Salo, it is impossible to make a detailed list of which events take place and which ones do not, in the instructions of the Board of Education or in other guidelines. For him, the key is informing about events in advance.
“If the need so requires, we can then agree on possible exceptional arrangements in advance.”
Instructions the interpretation is left to the schools. According to Salo, there could be an open discussion between the school and the guardians.
“If this kind of discussion takes place through complaints, for example, or as was the case with the school in Hämeenlinna, then I’m not at all surprised that schools become very careful,” says Salo.
Salo also believes that it is difficult to draw a line between religion and culture. Clearly religious occasions, such as devotionals organized by churches, are easy. Boundary-drawing problems arise if there are individual religious elements in the event.
“For example, a discussion about the school’s traditional spring celebration, where they sing Summer hymn. The position has been taken that this is a culture-related element that can be there,” says Salo.
According to Salo, it is not possible to draw the line even by specifying the instructions of the Board of Education. According to him, it is also not appropriate to start banning events and occasions just in case.
“Advance communication and the fact that we open up about what it’s about, we can do a lot with it.”