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Britt Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member  Learning Contentment
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 Hello! The National Art Education Association advocates for a return of art and music education to the American public schools. Thankfully, some public schools continue to offer the arts as part of the daily curriculum, but the numbers of such schools are dwindling. Why is art education - which includes fine art, music, movement and theater - necessary? Albert Einstein wrote:“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” Due to the "No Child Left Behind" act, schools and educators are focusing solely on mathematics, science and language, almost entirely abandoning the arts. Teachers are often encouraged to "teach to the test," meaning they develop their curriculum to mirror achievement tests. Scripted programs are becoming the norm in schools, and teachers are asked less and less to exercise creativity. Take a look at the following list from the National Art Education Association and ask yourself, "Does my child NEED art education?"  Art Means Work Beyond the qualities of creativity, self-expression, and communication, art is a type of work. This is what art has been from the beginning. This is what art is from childhood to old age. Through art, our students learn the meaning of joy of work—work done to the best of one’s ability, for its own sake, for the satisfaction of a job well done. There is a desperate need in our society for a revival of the idea of good work: work for personal fulfillment; work for social recognition; work for economic development. Work is one of the noblest expressions of the human spirit, and art is the visible evidence of work carried to the highest possible level. Today we hear much about productivity and workmanship. Both of these ideals are strengthened each time we commit ourselves to the endeavor of art. We are dedicated to the idea that art is the best way for every young person to learn the value of work. Art Means Language Art is a language of visual images that everyone must learn to read. In art classes, we make visual images, and we study images. Increasingly, these images affect our needs, our daily behavior, our hopes, our opinions, and our ultimate ideals. That is why the individual who cannot understand or read images is incompletely educated. Complete literacy includes the ability to understand, respond to, and talk about visual images. Therefore, to carry out its total mission, art education stimulates language—spoken and written—about visual images. As art teachers we work continuously on the development of critical skills. This is our way of encouraging linguistic skills. By teaching pupils to describe, analyze, and interpret visual images, we enhance their powers of verbal expression. That is no educational frill. Art Means Values You cannot touch art without touching values: values about home and family, work and play, the individual and society, nature and the environment, war and peace, beauty and ugliness, violence and love. The great art of the past and the present deals with these durable human concerns. As art teachers we do not indoctrinate. But when we study the art of many lands and peoples, we expose our students to the expression of a wide range of human values and concerns. We sensitize students to the fact that values shape all human efforts, and that visual images can affect their personal value choices. All of them should be given the opportunity to see how art can express the highest aspirations of the human spirit. From that foundation we believe they will be in a better position to choose what is right and good. We in the National Art Education Association are committed to this three-part statement about the importance of art instruction for America’s children. Our specific recommendations for school art programs are set forth in Purposes, Principles, and Standards for School Art Programs and in Design Standards for School Art Facilities. In addition, our various publications describe in detail the views of leading art educators about the issues confronting the art teaching profession. If you are interested in further information about these publications or about membership in the NAEA, subscriptions, orders, or information about art education, contact: The National Art Education Association
 "All that you have is your soul." --Tracy Chapman |
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newbiecollector Pioneer100© Member  You can't fake real
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I don't pretend to understand art, but I like it. I can't explain that to myself but it's true. Me?.....i think art in school is a very goos thing...........open the mind, can let your creative person out....... that sort of feeling....i cant say it better
Enjoy the pleasure of life Wayne |
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Britt Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Learning Contentment
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newbiecollector wrote: I don't pretend to understand art, but I like it. Heh, Newbie! I agree with you. From all I have read and experienced, students in the United States and Great Britain, in particular, are exhibiting less and less creativity as producers and problem solvers. This is a disturbing trend. Fewer and fewer young people are entering scientific vocations. Interestingly, art education helps people become more creative in scientific disciplines. A well-rounded individual requires both the arts and sciences. I liked what you said: "Open the mind, can let your creative person out." Yep, that sums it up!
"All that you have is your soul." --Tracy Chapman |
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shirohniichan Original500© Member  Obscurius per obscurum
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I lament the lack of art education in schools. I don't think this is merely the result of increased emphasis on math, language, and physical sciences, however. It seems to me that anti-drug education, feel-good-non-academic, and other agendas are taking up precious time and resources that could be used to bring music and visual arts education back into the classroom. When I took my first piano lessons at age 28, my teacher in Japan couldn't understand why I didn't play B-sharp when she told me my fingering was wrong. She kept repeating, "No, that finger is supposed to play B-sharp! No, B-SHARP! No, B-SHARP!" I told her I never learned to read music, so I didn't know B-sharp from F. She looked at me with a shocked expression and asked, "You went to school didn't you?!" She couldn't believe I made it through primary school without ever learning to read music. Children's lack of appreciation for music and art shows in their reactions to good music and art. They don't understand Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, or Brubeck, so they say it's "boring". Meanwhile they delve into musical ativism and respond to the simplest, rhythm-driven "music" because that's all they understand. Harmony, counterpoint, and even complex melodies are too much for them, so out it goes. I will step down from my soapbox now. 
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Britt Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Learning Contentment
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shirohniichan wrote: It seems to me that anti-drug education, feel-good-non-academic, and other agendas are taking up precious time and resources that could be used to bring music and visual arts education back into the classroom. Yes, indeed. And then there are pull-out programs for special ed students, students learning English as a second language, children in need of counseling, gifted students...and the list goes on. Truly, it is a daunting task for a teacher to make full use of instructional time when at least 30% of her students are gone or engaged in some extra-curricular program like DARE. 
"All that you have is your soul." --Tracy Chapman |
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g097103 Original500© Member
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I think math, hard sciences and reading are much more useful subjects and time better spent than art and music.
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shirohniichan Original500© Member Obscurius per obscurum
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g097103 wrote: I think math, hard sciences and reading are much more useful subjects and time better spent than art and music. They are certainly more pragmatic. I don't want to drop core academic subjects in order to bring back art and music. I want to drop ethnic pride week, drug-awareness week to kindergarten through 3rd graders, and other wastes of time.
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cynicalninja Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member  Smiling Shinobi
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I can't see how anyone can think certain subjects are more "worthwhile" than others. How can learning about quantum psychics be more "worthwhile" than learning to play the piano ? (and vice versa). Art and music are just as important to humanity as science and literature.
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Amy Original500© Member  ...going with the flow...
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cynicalninja wrote: I can't see how anyone can think certain subjects are more "worthwhile" than others.  as important if not moreso. I remember watching a documentary a couple years ago that showed how the synapses in our brain are constantly generating...and while listening to music or being creative in things such as art, those synapses would multiply exponentially. Which in turn would also be utilized while undertaking other activities. So, yes, if i were a betting person, i would bet that music and art are even more important in the overall scheme of things.  It would be interesting to see a study done regarding this...if schools with an active music and art program have higher test scores in general, than those without. I think that might be a real eye-opener.
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Britt Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Learning Contentment
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cynicalninja wrote: Art and music are just as important to humanity as science and literature. A quote from my childhood hero, Isaac Asimov: How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection. An artist is emotional, they think, and uses only his intuition; he sees all at once and has no need of reason. A scientist is cold, they think, and uses only his reason; he argues carefully step by step, and needs no imagination. That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers. -Isaac Asimov (1920–1992), Russian-born U.S. author. The Roving Mind, ch. 25, Prometheus (1983).
"All that you have is your soul." --Tracy Chapman |
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shirohniichan Original500© Member Obscurius per obscurum
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Western music and math are clearly related. Composers such as Taneiev and Bartok understood this and worked out some of their compositions mathematically. I found out that music is not like language (my forte), and once I understood that I realized why my musical abilities are so limited (in spite of intense desire to learn). Math and language are the building blocks for a successful career. One who cannot understand what others say or write and cannot make himself understood will not succeed in the business world. One who doesn't understand basic arithmetic won't succeed, either. If that is all one knows, I fear he will grow up to experience very little of life. In addition to math and language, music and art add a whole new level of living. In fact, very successful people in the cold, calculating business world usually have more depth to their lives including the arts. What one needs to ask himself is how he will define "success" for his children. Does he want children who will serve as highly functional cogs in the business machine? Does he want more for them? Or, on the other hand, does he want to raise children who are free to do as they please and pursue art no one else appreciates and thus dies early in poverty? (These are extreme examples). Or will he raise them to have fuller lives in which the children grow up with both the pragmatic skills and art?
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Britt Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Learning Contentment
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shirohniichan wrote: Or will he raise them to have fuller lives in which the children grow up with both the pragmatic skills and art? Exactly. This is why an emphasis on both is necessary. Skill in science, mathematics and language mean nothing without imagination and creativity. Without the fire of the creative impulse, they are simply procedural exercises, not memorable or innovative. Likewise, skill in fine art, music, dance or theater mean nothing without precision and measurement. Without the temperance of the scientific approach, they are simply "pretty things," not memorable and refined. A balance between the two is necessary. Albert Einstein wrote, “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.” Such imagination is only possible through sensitivity to art. Art and science "coalesce in aesthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are always artists as well.” I believe that 100%.
"All that you have is your soul." --Tracy Chapman |
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bjork73 Pioneer100© Member  Official Forum (T)reasoner
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shirohniichan wrote: Children's lack of appreciation for music and art shows in their reactions to good music and art. They don't understand Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, or Brubeck, so they say it's "boring". Meanwhile they delve into musical ativism and respond to the simplest, rhythm-driven "music" because that's all they understand. Harmony, counterpoint, and even complex melodies are too much for them, so out it goes. Ummmmm... hold up a sec; are you trying to suggest that my preference for the beats of the Neptunes over Mahler or Berlioz means my brain isn't art-developed. NO, sorry, unacceptable, that little bit of artistic elitism will simply NOT pass. Just because you may not understand the appeal doesn't mean you can call it devoid of artistic merit without being called out on it... Not to mention limiting art exposure to a particular view of what "good art" is won't do much except to limit the benefit of that exposure; variety is the spice of life, after all  Last edited on 09:14 am by bjork73 |
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Britt Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Learning Contentment
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bjork73 wrote: shirohniichan wrote:Children's lack of appreciation for music and art shows in their reactions to good music and art. They don't understand Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, or Brubeck, so they say it's "boring". Meanwhile they delve into musical ativism and respond to the simplest, rhythm-driven "music" because that's all they understand. Harmony, counterpoint, and even complex melodies are too much for them, so out it goes.  What defines art? What is aesthetically pleasing and what is devoid of merit? Yeah, we love our shiro, but that statement was a bit pretentious.  Mozart was the rock star of his day and many critics found him too innovative, even controversial. "Too many notes," was one comment, ha-ha. Picasso was classically trained, capable of realism greater than Michael Angelo. Yet, he chose to create Cubist art, a form some called "childlike."
"All that you have is your soul." --Tracy Chapman |
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shirohniichan Original500© Member Obscurius per obscurum
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bjork73 wrote: shirohniichan wrote:Children's lack of appreciation for music and art shows in their reactions to good music and art. They don't understand Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, or Brubeck, so they say it's "boring". Meanwhile they delve into musical ativism and respond to the simplest, rhythm-driven "music" because that's all they understand. Harmony, counterpoint, and even complex melodies are too much for them, so out it goes. I definitely think there has to be judgment on what is good art and what is not. If I turn a can of corn upside down and put mud on top, do I say it is "elitist" not to call it art? Do you really believe art can be anything and that art can appreciated without any study at all? Sure, you can enjoy art to some degree without knowing anything about it, but your appreciation of it rises when you do learn about it. If we really think there is no difference between art, we do a disservice to the genius of Beethoven by equating his Eroica Symphony with the Four Seasons' "Sherry Baby". One took time, education, and sheer genius to create. The other took 17 minutes at the breakfast table by someone who couldn't create one movement of suite, let alone an entire sysmphony (especially a noteworthy sysmphony).
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