Artful Innovation: Obama and Arts Education
The concept of an "Artist Corps" is an interesting part of President Obama's education policy. Of course, if artists are to teach, especially in inner-city schools, they'll have to be trained in *that* job as well as being trained artists.
It would certainly help to keep kids interested & engaged at school, and this interest might overflow into their other classes. Their awareness would be enhanced, they might create mental connections that they otherwise wouldn't and see solutions & possibilities that they hadn't thought of before. A real open-ended endeavor, likely to pay dividends down the road.
Sort of a jump-start to teach kids they can make things happen, take criticism, change things, express themselves and their world, make effective decisions, interact, concentrate, participate...and that sometimes there are no wrong answers.
Yes we can.
2 comments:
Art is the only subject in a school in which the student gets to set her own goals, gets to decide if what she is doing is working, gets to make her own judgements, and thus learns self-evaluation. One cannot do this in math or languages, except creative writing. Music is great for creative teamwork, but only art offers every individual the opportuniy to make up his own mind, to chart her own course, to find out who he is.
Studies (one study?) by the Getty Foundation show that incorporating the arts in school curricula increases the students' achievements in all other courses as well.
Also, "non-students", those with abilities that aren't verbal, have the opportunity to excell in other subjects, ones which are less verbal, and bring out the strengths of these less-verbal students.
So true. Thanks Helen. Maybe administraters are uncomfortable with the idea of a student making up his/her own mind...
Post a Comment