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David Brooks Gets It Right
It seems simple, but that is not what is happening. Instead, legislators and administrators are simply cutting on the basis of what’s politically easy and what vaguely seems expendable. In education, many administrators are quick to cut athletics, band, cheerleading, art and music because they have the vague impression that those are luxuries. In fact,…
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From Tikkun Magazine: Arts Education as a Spriritual Act
From Joel Shatzky and Tikkun Magazine comes Arts Education as a Spiritual Act. As this trend continues to evolve and grow, the spiritual qualities of America which was once, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, the “last best hope of mankind” will have been extinguished, while along with the intellectual and cultural environment, the physical…
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The Sometimes Tenuous Link Between the Arts and Arts Education
A well known figure in arts philanthropy once said to me that there are many artists who shouldn’t go into schools. Fair enough. Tweet That being said, still, I was quite struck by the fact that the negotiations between Detroit Symphony management and the musicians had as a sticking point the issue of making work…
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Will The Common Core ELA and Math Standards Override State Arts Standards?
I am a pretty big-time fan of the Common Core ELA and Math standards, primarily for the ways in which the standards are designed to broaden what has often been a very flat world of literacy and numeracy. And of course, the Common Core Standards has received a great deal of attention. It’s here to…
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How Important is Arts Education? The New York Times Asks Students
From The Learning Network of The New York Times, comes How Important is Arts Education?, by Katherine Schulten. As a follow-up to Chloe Veltman’s recent piece on how youth choirs are flourishing despite cuts in arts education, Schulten asks the students to respond to: Does your school offer classes in music, drama, dance or the…
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The Shanghaiing of Arts Education Part Two: All is Not What Meets The Eye
As a follow-up to The Shanghaiing of Arts Education, I am happy to direct you to a very interesting blog by Yong Zhao: “It Makes No Sense,” Puzzling Over Obama’s State of the Union Address. It’s a very important read, as it tackles the emerging mythology on how China goes about educating its students: Is…
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How I Learned to Love Steve Reich: Quality in Arts, and Arts Education
It happened again the other day: an assistant principal I know asked me about a conversation she had with one her music teachers. The conversation focused on whether or not a particular artist that the assistant principal was fond of was an artist of quality. The music teacher didn’t think so. It was cause for…
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Not So Fast Chairman Rocco: Arts Education Has A Marketplace Too
Okay, everyone is all abuzz about NEA (as in arts endowment, not the National Education Association) Chairman Rocco Landesman raising the issue in a recent blog of there being too much supply for the demand. In other words: there are too many arts organizations in America. It’s tough to argue that point. I am just…
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The See-Saw of Education: The Suprising Reasons Why Other Nations Outperform the US
What, you say? Yesterday it was push-pull and today it’s see-saw? What will it be tomorrow??? Tomorrow? Well, maybe I will use a phrase that Rob Horowitz and I used to bandy about: the churn. I am a big fan of Valerie Strauss’s blog in the Washington Post: The Answer Sheet. It doesn’t hurt that…
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How Would You Spend $100 Million on Education?
In the January edition of Fast Company, they ask a group of 10 plus “edu-experts” to offer their proposals for how to spend $100 million to “really save education.” Radical Idea Number Three: “I’d focus on the arts — music and visual arts and dance, all the things that make kids joyful. Kids need a…