Art Education Relevance for Survival and Education - Essay Example

Art Education as Relevant To Survival and Society As Training in Languages, Science, Math and History Introduction The arts comprise what people sometimes call the finer things in life and as such are considered non-essential to the daily grind, which is getting harder by the minute that it is also referred to as “survival of the fittest.” In this perception, the visual arts, music, theater, literature, dance, architecture and media such as film and photography are activities considered appropriate only for a select few who have the natural gift for them. It follows that training in art has no place in general education, in which literacy is the prime concern and teaching is concentrated on developing skills on the written or spoken word. Good education is equated with employability such that the primordial concern of schools is to teach children how to read, write and compute so they can find their suitable place in the workforce. There is no question that literacy in English, math, science and history is critical in the technology-driven society of today but there is a growing interest in the concept that arts in fact offer a vast learning opportunity that should be offered to all children from the earliest grades. New research concerning the relationship between learning and the arts suggests that the study of music from a very early age, for example, alters the very structure of the brain and allows students to perform better on tests. This paper explores the connection between art and society by attempting to find any relevance of art education to the proper development of an individual. Its main interest is the issue of whether the school system can be efficient without an arts program in the curricula. Arts and Science The current global problems are traced to the purely rational and materialistic way of thinking. To reestablish harmony in our lives and in our eco-system, there must be heightened recognition of the importance of creativity and spirituality through the arts (Laszlo online). In this worldview, art is merely a leisure activity that provides pleasure and enjoyment and its study can therefore be abandoned anytime in favor of activities that make use of time “more profitably, efficiently and satisfactorily (Treumann, 1993).” Art appreciation is fit only for a gifted few, and if children have to study literature or musical notes and join visits to museums and art galleries, this is only done as part of one’s education and it is the socially proper thing to do. But recent studies show that such preoccupation with letters and numbers makes for learning environments that are dull, boring and rigid in which students are the passive recipients of information (McKean & Oddeifson, 1997). The conviction is spreading that preparing students for the workforce acquires more efficiency if arts education is included in the equation. For example, the National Governors Association in the US in its 2002 report called “The Impact of Arts Education on Workforce Preparation” declared that the arts contribute to lower recidivism rates for at-risk youth; arts increased self-esteem; art studies contribute to the acquisition of job-related skills; and arts contribute to the development of much-needed creative thinking, problem solving and communication skills. In effect, the NGA noted that educational programs incorporating the arts have proven to be educational, developmentally rich, and cost-effective ways to provide students the skills they need to be productive participants in today’s economy and useful members of society. Art education programs combine academic and workforce development skills in a manner attractive to participants of all ages and economic backgrounds (Tucker, 2003). A number of research papers commissioned by the Washington State Arts Commission (WSAC) confirms that arts education enhances skills in reading, writing and math and that children involved in the arts have higher School Aptitude Test scores. Washington has a state law mandating that arts be made part of public education. For this reason, students in the Washington area who started secondary school beginning 2004 must earn 1 credit in the arts in order to graduate. The same coursework is required for the college admission of students in Arizona and California, while the requirement is still limited to college students seeking teaching degrees in Colorado, Idaho and Utah. Other states have yet to be convinced of the importance of arts education but six of them have already organized task forces or commissions to study the possibility of incorporating art education in their own curricula. Successful sculptor-painter Ned Herrmann, who was Manager of Management Education for many years at General Electric, looks at science and art as representing the left and right brain of man. Use of the left-brain side attends to man’s professional growth while the right brain has to do with the personal. The current system puts the left side of the brain to work on the 3 R’s of learning and in the process neglects, even contradicts, the cognitive capabilities of the right brain whose use is reserved for the arts (Herrmann, 1989). Herrmann maintains that the left-brain focus on fact, rationality and verbal communication leads students down the wrong learning path and can have unfortunate even devastating consequences. By leaving the right-brain capabilities to atrophy, the educational system deprives students of personal satisfaction and effectiveness as problem solvers, the reason why there is a high degree of internal conflict and dissatisfaction in today’s society. Herrmann thus espouses the use of the left and right brain to give us both personal and professional fulfillment. Arts and Business The academic community is not alone in the increasing attention it gives to arts education. Even management scholars are warming up to the idea that mandatory inclusion of art studies in the school curricula may enhance everyone’s perceptive capabilities and thus provide the tool for developing managerial talents. This is the view of Peter Drucker, America’s leading business management writer, who suggests that art subjects be taught as rigorous disciplines and not as “indulgence in pleasure.” In the US, 18 of the largest corporations have pooled resources and joined hands with the Massachussett Institute of Technology to put up the MIT Center for Organizational Learning (MIT-COL), whose express purpose is to explore the potential of arts to change the culture “that fragments our thoughts and detaches the world from the self and the self from the community (Oddleifson, 1997).” Among the initial measures being threshed out by the center is the teaching and practice of artistic disciplines alongside traditional management disciplines, such as systems thinking, mental models, shared visions and team learning. MTI-COL Director Peter Senge, once hailed by Fortune magazine as the intellectual and spiritual champion of the learning organization, describes the problem being addressed by the center this way: “We are so focused on our security that we live in bureaucratic organizations where the wonder and joy of learning have no place. We argue that the main dysfunctions in our institutions – fragmentation, competition and reactive attitudes – are byproducts of our success over thousands of years in conquering the physical world and developing our scientific and industrial culture at the expense of art.” Another management expert, former Hanover Insurance CEO Bill O’Brien, believes that as business continues to explore the need for a more imaginative and perceptive thinking, not only in its leaders but throughout the organization, this will be followed by greater appreciation for training in the arts and an aesthetic approach to education. This kind of thinking and knowing comes easy with a mastery of metaphor, a chief device in literature. Gerald Zaltman of Harvard Business School says metaphor is central to cognition such that learning its use makes us effective conversationalists and storytellers, skills that are essential in business, especially in sales and marketing. Specific training for specific lifetime jobs is no longer tenable in the postmodern society, which is about flexible skills and attitudes and a firm grounding on self to give one the ability to ask the right questions (Perrin, 1997). The service-oriented, technology-driven and sophisticated postmodern society is full of unknown opportunities and needs people who are artists or think like an artist. As such they are creative and critical thinkers, imaginative and inventive, risk takers, able to both work alone or in groups, self-motivated and open to new experiences (Ibid). Intensive training in arts can prepare students for life and work by developing in them the general skills and attitudes, the habits of heart and mind they need to prevail in postmodern society no matter what career they choose. This makes them big thinkers who give all of themselves to their work and see the big picture for the finer details, work well with others and use failure to learn. Science may explain the mystery behind the formation of rainbows, but it cannot on its own convey the emotive impact and meaning behind this nature’s display of colors. The arts are our windows on the world the same way science helps us see the world around us. To survive, we need all the symbolic forms at our command because they permit us to not only preserve and pass along our accumulated wisdom but also to give voice to the invention of new visions Arts and Society The arts reveal often hidden aspects about us, the world around us, and the relationship between these two. Arts are forms of thought every bit as potent as mathematical and scientific symbols as to what they convey. They are symbol systems representing our ideas, concepts and feelings, presented in various forms for other people to read. Without a study of Greek arts such as temples, statues, pottery and poetry, for example, we would never understand that ancient civilization. Just as the skyscraper tells us about the modern age, the Gothic cathedrals give us a glimpse into the Middle Ages. Thus, it is impossible to teach history without arts (Fowler, 1991). Dee Dickinson (1993), Chief Operating Officer of the New Horizons for Learning, sets the importance of arts in society in the following manner: Arts are languages that all people speak and cut across racial, cultural, social, educational and economic barriers and enhance cultural appreciation and awareness. They are symbol systems as important as letters and numbers. They integrate the mind, body and spirit. They provide opportunities for self-expression, bringing the inner world into the outer world of concrete reality. They offer the avenue to “flow states” and peak experiences. They create a seamless connection between motivation, instruction, assessment and practical application, leading to deeper understanding. They develop both personal independence and collaborative work. They provide immediate feedback and opportunities for reflection. They make it possible to use personal strengths in meaningful ways and to create a bridge leading to a better understanding of the sometimes difficult abstractions of life through these strengths. They merge the learning of process and content. They improve academic achievement, enhancing test scores, attitudes, social skills, critical and creative thinking. They exercise and develop higher-order thinking skills, including analysis, synthesis, evaluation and problem thinking. They are essential components of any alternative assessment program. They provide the means for every student to learn. The New Horizons for Learning, a group of educators that spearheads efforts to incorporate art education in schools, believes that the four major art disciplines of music, dance, drama and the visual arts are all essential to a complete education. All these art forms are taught from the earliest grades in such Asian countries as China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea, which explains why there are so many Asian musicians in American orchestras and conservatories. In those countries, it is intelligence that matters and not any special talent. It is assumed that all children can and should be taught art the same way Americans assume that all children can be taught to read, write and compute. In this context, the opportunity to teach the whole child is diminished (Perrin, 1997). Art is one of the most important human activities involved in the formation of worldviews (Treumann, 1993). Specimens of great art discipline the imagination, lead to fresh insights into the human condition and the nature of social relationships, and provide guidance on the selection of goals and ambitions. The understanding and appreciation of arts are necessary for the guidance of our future. Different manifestations of art have emerged in different stages of social evolution, and the appearance of new art forms usually corresponds to major changes in society (Laszlo online). Active engagement with artistic experiences offset the anesthetic, the mundane and the ordinary. A life without arts is a life of seeing without feeling, hearing only what is offered to us secondhand, touching without real contact. It is a life devoid of insight into what it means to be human. Thus, intensive training in arts serves to develop habits, attitudes and skills useful for life in modern society (Perrin, 1997). Arguments for Art The popular perception of literacy is confined to the symbol systems of language, math, and science. This should not be limited to these symbols and instead encompass the symbol systems of the arts for children to be equipped with the breadth of symbolic tools necessary to express, represent and communicate the full spectrum of human life (Fowler, 1991). The first group of symbol systems addresses only the mind but the symbol systems of the arts do wonders for both the mind and spirit of every child. Arts education will ignite the mind, spark the aspirations and illuminate the total being. The arts should be given major status in every child’s schooling for the following reasons: They are the ways by which we as human beings “talk” to ourselves and to each other. They are the language of civilization through which we express our fears, anxieties, our curiosities, our hungers, our discoveries and hopes. They are a central force in human existence. (Fowler, 1991 Recent research by neuroscientists indicate that neural connections in the human brain require positive, nurturing and stimulating environments for us to learn, remember, solve problems and create continuously throughout life. Marian Diamond, a leading neuroscientist at Berkeley, says a well-designed arts program will provide children with such a kind of environment, which is necessary for equipping them the means for the human brain to function at its highest capacity (McKean & Oddleifson, 1997). An example of a school that achieved academic excellence for students through arts programs is Green Lake Elementary School in Seattle, whose premises are distinctive for bright murals and student-created rain forests. At the school, art instruction is integrated in the curriculum, there are full-time arts specialists who help conduct multi-arts programs, and drama performances are staged regularly. Professional artists and performers are also invited from time to time to work with students on different art-related activities. Because of this rich arts program, school principal Harvey Deutsch said discipline problems are nearly gone, academic achievement is constantly rising, and students who might not have been successful otherwise are flourishing. The same thing is happening at Concord Elementary School in the less affluent area of Seattle, whose principal, Claudia Allen, believes she is seeing an “incredible” achievement in the reading skills of fourth and fifth-grade students because of arts education. The reading scores of these students were claimed to have increased by 2 levels on the MacMillan Reading Inventory, and by 20 to 25 percent on the California Test of Basic Skills scores. Arts-related activities at the school include the putting up of an Attic Theater with four stages to accommodate the full schedule of rehearsals and performances. Plays that have been performed at the school theater include The Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the , Beast, The Phantom Toll Booth, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. There is also an in-house TV program that the fourth and fifth-grade students produce daily. Another US school that enjoys a national reputation for consistently high academic achievement is the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia, whose graduates are sought by the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country. Arts education is so strong at this school that on a typical day, one would see students with sketchbooks working on the front lawn, its hallways are lined with students’ oil paintings and color photography, and posters announce the opening of the school production To Kill a Mockingbird and a Shakespeare reading session at the cafeteria. In these schools, Oddleifson (1997) notes that students spend 20 percent of their time studying the arts either as a separate subject or as an integral part of the curriculum. By thus experiencing the art, “they are developing the capacity for sound judgment, attention to purpose and the ability to follow through on tasks and ability to consider different viewpoints and defer judgment when the situation calls for it.” In sum, the students are exercising and developing mind, body, emotions and spirit. The College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) agrees with this assessment based on its evaluation of the results of the 1993 tests: “Students who took up arts and music scored significantly higher than the national average on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Those who had participated in acting, plays, music performances, drama appreciation and art history scored 31 to 50 points higher in math and oral tests.” The CEEB presented a profile of college-bound seniors in its national report for 2000-2002, which maintained that young people who studied arts for at least 3 hours on a 3-day per week schedule for 1 year are: Four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement. Three times more likely to be elected as class officer. Four times more likely to participate in a math and science fair. Three times more likely to win an award for perfect school attendance. (Tucker, 2003) Roy Pea, dean of education at Northwestern University and a leading authority in the Distributed Cognitions field, is convinced that this happens because intelligence is not confined to the minds of individuals but exists in our interaction with other people; in the resources in our environment such as books, radio and TV, art exhibits, concerts and plays; and it exists and grows through the tools we use such as hammers and chisels, pens and paper, word processors and calculators, computers, paint brushes and musical instruments. An increasing number of psychologists appear to share this view of forward-looking educators. During the 1994 staging of the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, for example, research papers were read to the effect that music lessons, even simply listening to music, can enhance one’s performance in spatial reasoning. The reports pointed to an interesting phenomenon in Silicon Valley, where the best engineers and technical designers were confirmed to be practicing musicians. In the same vein, it is believed that universities in India produce an unusual number of good mathematicians and physicists because Indian children listen to ragas all their lives. Ragas are musical compositions with complex rhythmical and tonal patterns. A number of research projects conducted for the Washington State Arts Commission confirm that arts education enhances skills in reading, writing and computation. Fowler (1991) insists that the arts are not just important; they are a central force in human existence. “In a technological society, the need for literacy in English, math, science and history is critical, but arts as important for what they can do for the mind and spirit of every child.” For this reason, writer Donald Murray in the Boston Globe (September 12, 1995) joined the call for the integration of art studies in the school curricula, saying, “the arts are essential means of human experience; they are not a frill. We recommend that all students study the arts to discover how human beings communicate not only with words but through music, dance and the visual arts.” Conclusion Evidence is mounting that art education is useful even important to society as a whole, not just to the gifted and talented few as previously believed. Contrary to the old perception that art is “nice” but non-essential, recent research indicates that art is both pleasurable and important at the same time. If education is confined to the study of language, science, math and history, as is the current practice in many parts of the world, this stimulates the brain but not the senses. When education develops nothing but the ability to read, write and compute, the system puts an edge to the students’ professional life but ignore their personal needs. This is the thesis of Fowler (1991) who is persuasive in his postulate that the traditional mode of teaching does not make a complete human being in that it attaches too much importance to rationality and materialism at the expense of creativity and spirituality that only art education can provide. In the absence of contrary arguments, this paper agrees with Dickinson (1993) that arts are universal languages that all people speak and which span all races, cultures, religions and educational and socio-economic stations. Indeed, it is a fact that people of all creeds and colors enjoy Shakespeare’s verses or Rembrandt’s paintings with the same level of delight and intensity. This universal language is also the language of civilization that enables us to talk to ourselves and to each other (Fowler, 1991). Without art, the literature scanned for this paper argues that it is impossible to teach history, one of the priorities of traditional education. The reason is that you can’t give students familiarity with, let us say, the ancient Greek civilization if they don’t immerse in the beauty of Greek temples, statues and poetry. Preparation for work, another chief function of traditional education, is also ineffective if it excludes art studies, which are a better method of developing creative thinking, problem solving, communication and job-related skills. In fact, the business world, as indicated by the formation of the MIT Center for Organizational Learning through the largesse of the 18 largest US corporations, is on its way to altering the content of management studies by meshing art education with systems thinking, shared visions and team learning. In training for jobs in the postmodern society, mastery of science, math, history and language has been found wanting and requires the flexible skills and attitudes, a firm grounding in one’s self and the ability to ask the right questions that art education can provide, according to Perrin (1997). For this reason, the renowned management writer Peter Drucker espouses that arts be taught in schools not simply as an “indulgence in pleasure” but as a rigorous discipline. References 1. Fowler, Charles (1991). “Every Child Needs the Arts.” In Creating the Future, D. Dickinson (ed), New Horizons for Learning. 2. Dickinson, Dee (1993). “Why are the Arts Important?” New Horizons for Learning, Available online at: http://www.newhorizons.org 3. Laszlo, Kathia Castro. “The Evolutionary Role of Art.” Available online at: http://www.syntonyquest.org/elcTree/resourcesPDFS/Evolutionary role of art.pdf 4. Oddleifson, Eric. (1997). “The Necessary Role of the Arts in Education and Society.” Center for Arts in the Basic Curriculum. 5. Perrin, Stephanie. (1997). “Education through the Arts in Secondary Schools.” Center for Arts in the Basic Curriculum. 6. Tucker, Kris. (2003). “Stimulating the Brain and Senses through Art.” Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia, Washington. Annotated Bibliography 1. Fowler, Charles (1991) – Every Child Needs the Arts. This thesis argues that art education is necessary for the complete education of all children, to go with the standard training in English, math, science and history. For this reason, the work was picked as the principal reference for our own paper, whose aim is precisely to drum up support for the theory that art education is important in every level of a child’s learning. Fowler (deceased) knows whereof he speaks having been a practitioner of many arts with a teaching background on every level to boot. He had a Master of Music degree and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree, wrote music for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, and the National Endowment for the Arts and was at the same time a movie scriptwriter of some reputation. He also published over 200 articles, books and reports on the subject. These credentials showed on the quality of arguments he marshaled for this thesis, which proved useful to this paper. It also explains why he appears biased towards the inclusion of art education in the school system, which again can be forgiven because of the logic and coherence of his arguments. One of the most persuasive points he raised is the difficulty of teaching ancient Greek civilization to students who have never been instructed on Greek temples and poetry. Fowler directed his scholarly work on the education sector, which is as it should be since this sector is still torn over the issue of whether the study of arts should be incorporated or not in the general curricula. 2. Dickinson, Dee (1993) – Why are the Arts Important? Ms. Dickinson draws up a 15-point list of reasons why art education is important for everyone. Although there is no elaboration after each bullet item, the list of reasons was worded in such a way that each succinctly captures the whole essence of the arguments expounded in Fowler (1991) and the other reference materials chosen for this paper. Echoing Fowler, for example, Ms. Dickinson looks at arts as the means for every student to learn, which help improve academic achievement, enhance test scores, social skills and critical and creative thinking. If the Dickinson list is as authoritative as Fowler’s, it is because the author is the co-founder and Chief Learning Officer of the New Horizons for Learning, a group of forward-looking educators that actively promotes the inclusion of art education in the teaching modules of every school. The intended audience of Ms. Dickinson is apparently the general public, to whom the idea is a new one. 3. Laszlo, Kathia Castro – The Evolutionary Role of Art. Ms. Laszlo’s online material, an unpublished manuscript, is highly relevant to our own paper because it discusses the role and importance of the arts to everyone. Ms. Laszlo dismisses the view that art is simply a leisure activity and a decorative element that has little bearing on everyday life. In fact, she argues that every major change in society is reflected in the appearance of a new art form, which should demonstrate the relevance of art to the daily grind. The main point of Ms. Laszlo is that the understanding of history is necessary for the guidance of our future, and that every era is marked by “manifestations of art that have emerged in different stages of social evolution.” For this reason, one cannot dissociate art with history. All told, Ms. Laszlo’s work was the source of many quotes in this paper, such as :art is one of the most important human activities involved in the formation of world views” and “art disciplines the imagination, leads to fresh insight into human nature and the nature of social relationships, and provides guidance in the selection of goals and ambitions.” 4. Oddleifson, Eric (1997) – The Necessary Role of the Arts in Education and Society. This paper sourced the most number of quotes from the work of Oddleison, especially in the section about the relevance of arts to management education. The reason is that apart from being a strong advocate of meshing arts in the basic curriculum, Mr. Oddleifson is also an accomplished management specialist. He holds the concurrent positions as Managing Director of the New York-based UBS Asset Management Inc. and Chairman of the Center for Arts in the Basic Curriculum (CABC), which complements the efforts of New Horizons for Learning led by Dickinson (1993). This explains why Oddleifson’s thesis appears to be addressed more to the business sector than to educators. Its usefulness to this paper relates to the increasing interest of business in the arts, as exemplified by the setting up of the MIT Center for Organizational Learning, which is in the process of making artistic disciplines part of traditional management disciplines like systems thinking, team learning and vision sharing. 5. Perrin, Stephanie (1997) – Education through the Arts in Secondary Schools. Ms. Perrin is strictly an educator who majored in art history. This twin interest shows in her present job as head of the Walnut Hill School, a private school for artistically inclined students, in Natick, Massachussetts. In her view, the postmodern society is not about specific training for specific lifetime jobs but about flexible skills and attitudes, with a firm grounding on self, which latter qualities only art education can provide. In other words, intensive training in the arts develops habits, attitudes and skills useful for life in modern society. This contention fits well into the drift of this paper, which is that arts provide a learning opportunity that should be made available to all children from the earliest grades. An interesting observation by Ms. Perrin, which was given the full treatment in this paper, is the phenomenon of so many Asian musicians in American conservatories and orchestras. The possible explanation is that all children in Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan are taught from their earliest grades to play a musical instrument, draw or sing. 6. Tucker, Kris (2003) – Stimulating the Brain and Senses through Art. This paper is enriched by empirical evidence of schools that succeeded in raising the academic achievements of their students because of the Tucker (2003) report. The authoritative reports cited by Tucker include those of the Washington State Arts Commission, the National Governors Association and the College Board Seniors National Report for 2000,2001 and 20002. In the College Board report, it was confirmed that young people who participate in art studies extensively are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement and three times more likely to win an award for school attendance. The NGA, on the other hand, postulated that the arts increase self-esteem and contribute to the acquisition of job skills. For these highly relevant data, Tucker’s paper was included in our reference list. Read More