Please find a less offensive way to describe your opinion. I know plenty of artistic kids who are energetic and outgoing. Ultimately, even though anti-art proponents work to remove art from schools, often the economy has a more substantial impact on art education. In some cases, proponents for the removal of art from schools have been influential in implementing technology-based programs in the place of art programs in schools. Although their effectiveness varies, the anti-art education stance clearly plays a large part in this ongoing art education debate. If students aren’t interested, it isn’t because of the art in the program itself, it is because is the way the art programs are taught. (2014, April 8). It’s seen as frivolity, an indulgence, a way to keep kids busy with scissors and paste. Stop making pinch pots; instead, build a 3-D printer and turn out artificial hands for homeless amputees. We’d also emphasize digital creativity, focusing on cutting edge (and cheap) technology, removing the artificial divide between arts and science, showing how engineering and sculpture are related, how drawing and User Experience (UX) Design are facets of the same sort of skills, how music and math mirror each other. Art and music programs help keep them in school, make them more committed, enhance collaboration, strengthen ties to the community and to peers, improve motor and spatial and language skills. "The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)-- is set to revisit a plan that includes devastating cuts to elementary art education programs. A tug of war is currently looming between proponents of STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and math) and advocates for STEAM lessons, which add art to the mix. We have no culture without the arts and humans need to be able to express themselves. Every child does not behave or create the same way either. As of 2015, only 26.2% of African-American students had access to art classes (Metla, 2015). 1820 N Fort Myer Dr., Suite 320, Arlington, VA 22209. New National Art Standards were rolled out and supposed to be in use by all art teachers beginning a couple years ago. We don’t teach product making, we explore processes and thinking, our classrooms are a praxis.-Mary Anna Pomonis, Assistant Professor of Art Education, Cal State University Fullerton. Nonetheless, arts education has been gutted in American public schools. Perhaps a creative writing class would improve your ability to express your narrow and antiquated opinions. Nor is it a freak show of self-indulgent divas and losers. Theater would be all about collaboration, presentation, and problem solving. With these opportunities available outside of school, anti-art education proponents are pushing for more of a focus on technical and career based classes in schools. In the Sacramento school system, in 2010, a bill was passed replacing art in schools with career training programs for their students. The importance of job training, in the eyes of the anti-art education stance, far outweighs that of art education. Nationally, the opposition to art education pushes for the addition of engineering and computer science classes in schools, in the place of art classes. Although this would not be happening in schools facing extreme budget cuts, where everything but core subjects are cut, it is possible in many other school districts. I had difficulty believing in anything else you wrote after reading several rude statements in this article. H_NGM_N: What one says, and doesn’t say, to white educators, An opportunity framework for career pathway programs, The reinvention of Minneapolis schools coverage. So I propose we get rid of “art” education and replace it with something that is crucial to the future of our world: creativity. This piece originally appeared as a post on Gregory’s blog: https://dannygregorysblog.com. A lot of school, sadly, do not prioritize art which is one of the biggest problems. this article is garbage. Oddly enough, education is often the lowest priority in arts organizations just as the arts are often the lowest priority in public schools. Phi Delta Kappan offers timely, relevant, and provocative insights on K-12 education policy, research, curriculum, and professional development. It is appalling that people can be against such critical areas of study. And, predictably, lower income and minority students were the most likely to lose their art programs. He does prefer for the younger ones to make pretty pictures and keep quiet, and the older ones to have so many grades each quarter, nothing below a B at the end of the year. You would be much better served by having those who know about a subject to be the ones to write articles about them. A great artist is also a problem solver, a presenter, an entrepreneur, a fabricator, and more. Originally published in April 2017 Phi Delta Kappan 98 (7), 21-22. Regardless of their opinions and debates over art, with funding cuts, it can, in extreme cases, come to picking between math and art, which automatically removes art, without the need for persuasion. For example, Oklahoma, a state over $36 billion in debt, has no choice but to cut funding towards the arts. State Representative Josh Cockroft has recently written a bill to remove art funding, including a $4 million annual subsidy given to the Oklahoma Arts Council, stating, âThe time has come to set priorities and to exercise spending discipline.â The anti-art stance sees the economic burden of art education and the necessity of cutting back. Effort to revive arts programs in schools gains momentum. School art programs: Should they be saved? Often times students can take lessons outside school, but their ensemble playing comes from school. EdSource. A non academic, non research based article based on assumptions and opinions and as others have pointed out…garbage. Your email address will not be published. We’ve all seen the data suggesting students who take art classes have higher SAT scores. I need to interview someone via email who opposes this topic. Although the anti-art stance is not having a large impact on the prevalence of art in schools, it is obvious that national and state debt is having a gigantic impact. Your email address will not be published. With some major exceptions across the country, most arts organizations provide arts experiences; these experiences may or … Schools of art are not justifiable by argument, because contemporary art is not justifiable by argument, i.e. 53 Max, "Staff Briefing on the National Endowment for the Arts… I am an art teacher. 6. After the recession of 2008, 80% of the nation’s schools faced budget cuts. Right now, those metrics are employment, price, and long-term career earnings. All rights reserved. In order to get these technology and career based programs implemented, anti-art proponents work to remove art courses on a school-by-school basis, at the national level, and everywhere in between. The large size of the pro-art education movement, though, can limit the effectiveness of the anti-art arguments. To gain a foothold in this debate, anti-art supporters often target pro-art education groups for their lack of solid research-based and statistical arguments for the arts. They critique the primarily emotional and anecdotal claims, regarding the effects of the arts on children. Imagine that you are a parent and, due to funding cuts, you have to choose whether your child will learn art or math in school. Obviously, any sane parent would pick math. If a child never learns addition, they will never be able to survive in society today. If your child never learns to paint, though, they will be absolutely fine. Maybe they will not have tapped into their creative sides, but at least they can add. This is the basis of the anti-art in schools argument. It comes down to necessity and welfare, rather than an argument of extra intelligential enrichment. People who support the removal of art from schools do not necessarily oppose art. Our posts seem to be kind of connected each week, which I think is awesome! Great posts! art is itself indefensible. Who are you to speak on what should be taught in schools if you’ve never actually had a full-time job working as a teacher in the public education system or even a formal training in education? This poorly written article cries out for more education in the arts instead of less as you definitely need more exposure. Sims says liberal arts colleges (and liberal arts programs at other types of institutions) need to do a better job calculating and presenting the numbers that matter to these students. It is easy to assume that all anti-art in schools supporters are science or math people who go around bitterly claiming that art is pointless and does not make any sense. Every child is different. The fight is on! They “can’t fit it into the budget”. Visual arts is arts education..We must restore its position as part of the core curriculum that existed before the 1980’s. Kappan readers include new and veteran teachers, graduate students, school and district administrators, university faculty members (researchers and teacher educators), and policy makers. As you said, when we are young we love art. Maybe you would know that if you had paid attention in art class. When art classes are done right they help students immensely, and there are many studies to prove it. We’d teach them how to realize their ideas, how to get them executed through a supply chain, how to present and market and share them. If you are interested in helping me could you please email and I can send you my 10 question document. How is your community depicted in the curriculum? “Art” is an elitist luxury that hard-nosed bureaucrats know they can cut with impunity. If we allow it, everything in school will lose rigor and become drone development. Instead of teaching kids to paint bowls of fruit with tempera, we’d show them how to communicate a concept through a sketch, how to explore the world in a sketchbook, how to generate ideas, how to solve real problems. Yikes..this article is offensive. congratulations. As the economy has improved, there has been some discussion about reversing some of these cuts. And so they do, making math and science the priority to fill the ranks of future bean-counters and pencil pushers. We’d teach kids to work effectively with others to improve and test their ideas. Stay up to date on the latest news, research and commentary from Kappan. When, during a discussion with the principal, I explained that art class is to teach the students perseverance, problem solving, creative thinking, resiliency, etc., he actually smirked and laughed at me. The art teacher is responsible for aligning the curriculum they are teaching with those standards. Here’s a modest proposal: Let’s take the “art” out of “art education.”. All too often, art class becomes a gut, an opportunity for adolescents to screw around. The stereotypes used in this article were extremely rude. Our public schools are struggling for funding for even the most basic needs like textbooks and paper. Law Street. Joyful learning at scale: Immersing students in the arts, Art classes taken by 8th graders, according to NAEP, Ranking the top high school plays and musicals, On the goals and outcomes of arts education: An interview with Lois Hetland, Pandemic offers opportunity to reduce standardized testing. And so they do, making math and science the priority to fill the ranks of future bean-counters and pencil pushers. His goal to know a little bit about everything seems to be what our General Education requirements are founded on. Copyright 2021 Phi Delta Kappa International. Metla, V. (2015, May 2014). (And, by the way, if we teach kids loads of math and science but don’t encourage their creativity, they aren’t going to grow up to be great engineers and scientists and inventors and discoverers — just drones and dorks.). Don’t make black and white films about leaves reflected in puddles; make a video to promote adoption at the local animal shelter. In short, every child starts out with a natural interest in art, but for most it is slowly drained away until all that’s left is a handful of teens in eyeliner and black clothing whose parents worry they’ll never move out of the basement. The stereotypes stated are outdated. Although, I think for music, it’s a lot harder to find a community ensemble. Here’s a modest proposal: Let’s take the “art” out of “art education.”. For the districts 275,000 elementary students, this could mean an education devoid of the arts curriculum that has long been a core part of a well-rounded, complete public education" Yes, I know that there are high-school video classes and art computer labs, but they need to be turned into engines for creativity and usefulness, not abstract, high-falutin’ artsiness based on some 1970s concepts of expression. You say you have an “impression” of what school art programs are like. A lot of teachers probably need to freshen up their curriculum and teaching style, but more importantly schools and communities MUST appreciate art programs and give teachers the opportunity to promote their programs! Hawkins, T. (2012, December 28). Good luck to you. Too many educators simply hand students good grades or are pressured to do so by students themselves or dictatorial administrators. You’d be amazed to actually see what artist look like. Can you imagine how that works out for me? Nowadays, we all need to be creative in ways that we never did, or could, before. Your perception of the “freak show of self-indulgent divas and losers” and the way “all” art students dress is upsetting and mean. /2016/04/15/lets-get-rid-of-art-education-in-schools. So, I wasn’t surprised by the dim argument against the proposal to restore arts education to the public schools via a small income tax increase that the editorial page mustered today. I’ll dissect that argument quickly, because it wasn’t very substantial: Given budget constraints, the school system was right to allow arts instruction to “wither” because the arts are “low priorities.” I said this in my post: I think that schools should focus on making little cuts in all departments. We’d teach creative process, how to come up with ideas, how to find inspiration, how to steal from the greats. This article was absolute garbage and it’s a shame that people have access to this one page one from their search engine. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. That matters far more than football games and standardized test scores. This writing was crass and in poor taste. I really like how you pointed out that children can get involved in the arts elsewhere! “Art” is an elitist luxury that hard-nosed bureaucrats know they can cut with impunity. 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