by Jenna Zwang
eSchool News
Posted Online on May 6, 2011
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/05/06/new-report-cites-need-for-more-arts-integration/?
Jenna Zwang's article states something most of us already know: that the arts help students learn AND it assists in students learning in the core achievements that are being tested. The research she cites to back up her premise is a new federal report by the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the article states it is the first federal analysis of arts education data in a decade. The reports recommendations are:
- Build robust collaborations among different approaches to arts education.
- Develop the field of arts integration.
- Expand in-school opportunities for teaching artists.
- Use federal and state policies to reinforce the place of arts in K-12 education.
- Widen the focus of evidence gathering about arts education.
Of course the irony of this report is our testing is doing the exact opposite of what this report states. To add to the irony is this quote from the person most pushing the testing, Education Secretary Arne Duncan: "To succeed today and in the future, America’s children will need to be inventive, resourceful, and imaginative. The best way to foster that creativity is through arts education.”
From what Zwang quotes from this report there are really no negatives to strengthening schools' arts programs. Unfortunately with all of the budget cuts occurring around the nation the arts are the areas that are seeing the most cuts. Schools, parents, administrators, politicians, conservatives, liberals and moderates alike need to understand that in cutting the arts program what is actually happening is you are cutting the learning of our children.
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