Author: Richard Kessler

  • Video: Jon Stewart Has A Message for Our Low Performing Teachers

    The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Crisis in Dairyland – Message for Teachers www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

  • Tacking on to Undercofler and Taylor: What Do Graduates of Arts Colleges Need to Know and Be Able To Do?

    I’ve been following the recent posts of Jim Undercofler and Andrew Taylor: Jim’s post, Arts Entrepreneurship — Lack of Imagination, Lack of Chutzpah? was followed up by Andrew’s post, Is Arts Entrepreneurship Training  Really Just Career Prep? So, here’s my tack-on, making for a trio on the subject. Today, much of the K-12 education debate…

  • Rabkin and Hedberg Report on 25 Year Decline in Access to K-12 Arts Education

    Last week the National Endowment for the Arts released three new commissioned reports, including Arts Education in America: What The Declines Mean for Arts Participation, by Nick Rabkin and E.C. Hedberg. There’s a very good write-up on the report in Education Week, click here to read Arts Education Sees Declines, Especially for Minorities, Report Suggests,…

  • 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,…

  • 15% Cut Projected for Arts Teachers in NYC

    After a historic rise in spending for public education since 2003, during which time the New York City public school budget rose from $12.7 billion to $23 billion, where at last count 22% of schools lacked even one single certified teacher of the arts, where there was a 31% reduction in spending on cultural partnership…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • But Wait, There’s More!! House Republicans To Cut Education by $5 Billion!

    From Education Week: House GOP Presses for Deep Cuts to Education. The measure moving through the House includes a more than 16 percent cut to the Education Department’s discretionary budget for the current fiscal year, including scrapping more than a dozen K-12 programs and slicing others once considered untouchable, such as Pell Grants to help…

  • The Attack on the Arts and A Fond Recalling of The Second Bill of Rights

    The arts blogosphere seems to be lighting up daily with posts about how the arts are under attack again by conservatives: it’s the return of the culture wars. On the face of it, yes, it’s true: the NEA, NEH, CPB, PBS, etc., are all on a big hit list for zeroing out by any number…

  • Artsmarts: Why Cutting Arts Funding Is Not a Good Idea, from Psychology Today

    Michele and Robert Root-Bernstein, the co-authors of Sparks of Genius, the 13 Thinking Tools of the Most Creative People, bring you a wide-ranging blog on how funding the arts funds scientific innovation and economic development. Which arts should we invest in? All of them! While almost all arts correlated with increased success as a scientist or…