Memo # 1: Thesis and Overview

Performing Arts In The Classroom

“The arts are an essential element of education, just like reading, writing, and arithmetic…music, dance, painting, and theatre are all keys that unlock profound human understanding and accomplishment.” –William Bennett, Former US Secretary of Education
 

     As I began searching texts and advocate speeches on the performing arts in classrooms, I came to the quick realization of two things. One was that the performing arts usually fall under the branch of “the arts”. It’s difficult to find specific text on the performing arts as a whole. They can focus on one of those aspects, say theatre, where I have a found a great book called Theatre in the Secondary School Classroom: Methods and Strategies for the Beginning Teacher by Jim Patterson, Donna McKenna-Crook and Melissa Swick Ellington but never as a whole. Many of the information I provide from my research will be simply considered as “the arts”. As I have mentioned in my proposal, “the arts” extends out to visual art, dance, music, performance art and theatre but I will try to focus on the latter four, the ones that contain performance. I will from henceforth be removing the quotes around the arts. The second realization I have come to is that there is a lot out there and it’s going to be very difficult for me to narrow it down.

     I am both relieved and excited to find many books, websites and speeches by advocates for the arts. These range from former artists who have since turned to teaching and/or spreading the word, politicians and passionate people who work in the arts fields. I was amazed to find loads of arts council and government standard websites like National Arts Education Association (NAED) [http://www.arteducators.org/grants/national-art-education-foundation] and National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) [http://www.nasaa-arts.org/]. A website that I will probably be referring to the most is the National Performing Arts Convention (NPAC) [http://www.performingartsconvention.org/advocacy/id=28].

     The key book I will refer to is Why Our High Schools Need The Arts by Jessica Hoffman Davis. The selling point for me was a chapter called “A Focus On Emotion” where expressions and empathy is discussed. In this book Davis gives a bit of history behind where the arts used to stand and where they rate now in schools.  In the nineteenth century arts were encouraged in schools because America wanted to compete with artistic Europe (pg. 7). During the mid-twentieth century when Russia had won the race against America for the first satellite launched, the government slowly started to remove the arts from the curriculum and replace it with math and science to turn out little scientists who could create other forms of competitive innovative tools (pg. 8). It was here where I learned what started the declined focus on the arts in education.

Sir. Ken Robinson Why Arts Education Matters

          Sir. Ken Robinson, a leader in arts and creativity education, is one of my heroes. He started his focus on drama and theatre in the curriculum but has expanded out into all of the arts, often sharing stories of inspiration from the fields of theatre, dance and music. I have two books from him that I hope to reference, although they are based on England’s system, over thirty years ago! They are The Arts In Schools; Principles, Practice and Provision and Learning Through Drama: School Council Drama Teaching Project 10-16. I will most likely refer to his videos more than anything. Here he speaks about the No Child Left Behind policy has chosen to replace the arts more and more with standardized tests. By doing this, they are also removing arenas where students can experience what it means to be a human being through vision, sounds, words and movement. Robinson, like many others points out that the arts is the only subject where students can show us who they view the world and to think for themselves. 

     In my searching, I have come across another great speaker and advocate, in the same vein as Robinson. His name is Eric Booth, a former actor and now an author and developer of programs, organizations and conferences focused on arts education. I found a commencement speech given to a graduation class at the New England Music Conservatory which moved me to tears because he showed how by giving a bit of background and making a personal connection to a piece before delivering it can move and reach people is a much more profound way. “Through making and finding meaning in art, we discover out capacity to feel and care, to be true to ourselves and responsible for others (Davis, pg. 36).

            I have found that these advocates for arts education use real-life examples of students who are affected by the arts in great ways to prove their point. I plan on doing the same both from students who used the arts as means to get them through the other subjects in school and former students who now work for a living the arts. Davis’ book and Herbert Kohn’s The Muses Go To School: Inspiring Stories About The Importance Of Arts In Education will provide me with such examples.  A common theme I came across is the alarming high school age drop-out rate. What research has found is that this is often because students feel bored and don’t have any subjects that they are interested in to balance out the rest of the required subjects. A high school senior said “in other classes like geometry and science, you’re stuck with the curriculum the teacher gets to choose. It’s a dictatorship in a way. “I have this stuff to teach you and I am going to force you upon it and you can’t do anything about it learn or fail,” that’s the attitude I get from all of my academic classes besides art (Davis, pg. 18). No wonder why students are so removed from themselves and school!

     Other books I will turn to are Literacy and the Arts for the Integrated Classroom: Alternative Ways of Knowing by Nancy Lee Cecil, Strong Arts, Strong Schools: The Promising Potential and Shortsighted Disregard of the Arts in American Schooling by Charles Fowler, Readers Theatre in the Middle and Junior High Classroom: A Take Part Teacher's Guide : Springboards to Language Development Through Readers Theatre by Lois Walker and Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development by Richard J. Deasy among many others. All of these sources will help me to focus on three defining aspects for why I feel arts education is essential; self-expression/confidence, compassion/empathy and connection/understanding. No other subject is able to hit these in such an enriching, powerful and personal way.

      To conclude, I’d like to share another video I found on why art education is important, which I feel sums up some key reasons through text while the rising of an uplifting song can restore hope for an education system that thrives in the arts.

Picture Link:

http://www.ucira.ucsb.edu/wp-content/files_flutter/1320789925ARTS_Really_Teach_RGB.jpg