Five Critical Challenges Facing American Education
An education in and through the arts develops these skills and perspectives and addresses the following five critical challenges facing American education today.
AMERICA CONTINUES TO FACE DECLINING ENGAGEMENT AND A CULTURE OF DIVISION ON BOTH LOCAL AND NATIONAL LEVELS
Arts education develops empathy, the capacity to work collaboratively, and the ability to think critically, skills which support young people in becoming the discerning and engaged citizens necessary for a democratic and civil society. In school settings where the arts are taught as serious disciplines one finds self-motivated students, greater parental involvement, increased and intensified student and teacher engagement, and respect for, and interest in, differences. Learning in the arts requires engagement with the culture and the development of effective communication skills.
THE GREATEST PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE IN AMERICA TODAY IS THE FAILURE OF THE AMERICAN EDUCATION SYSTEM TO PROVIDE DIRECTION AND PURPOSE TO ITS YOUNG PEOPLE, RESULTING IN APATHY AT BEST AND VIOLENCE AT WORSE.
Intensive engagement in the arts actively supports the psychological, physical, and social development of preadolescent and adolescent students, our future American citizens. Training in the arts offers structures and venues whereby adolescent characteristics such as idealism, intense emotional engagement, an active imagination, and the need for connection to a just cause can be productively engaged and developed. Further, because training in the arts often engages the whole child it offers multiple paths to success to student populations with a wide variety of learning styles, experiences, and background. It is, for example, highly effective in urban settings.
AMERICAN EDUCATION DOES NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE IMPACT OF THE GLOBALIZATION OF CULTURE AND COMMERCE IN AN INCREASINGLY INTERDEPENDENT WORLD
Because the arts share a global language and a common culture of training and production, they provide a pathway to global communication and commerce. The arts are a universal language which bridges cultures and emphasizes the highest aspirations of humankind. The processes whereby the arts are taught are universally understood and employed as well. These capacities have increasing relevance in the emerging global and technological culture.
AMERICA WILL LOSE ITS COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE TO NATIONS THAT INCREASINGLY UTILIZE ARTS EDUCATION TO DEVELOP THE IMAGINATION AND PROMOTE INNOVATION
The global economy is increasingly powered by innovation and flexibility and seeks a workforce that is proactive, imaginative, and able to access and use information well. Most high schools in America still employ an educational model designed for an industrial economy, limiting learning to discreet disciplines and focusing on the coverage of content rather then the process of learning. Meanwhile rising economies and democracies around the world are committing resources to arts education to create a workforce whose skills and capacities will lead them to increased prosperity and national influence If America is remain competitive strategies other then a focus on standardized testing are called for.
THE CRISIS OF THIS CENTURY IN AMERICA IS NOT MATERIAL OR INTELLECTUAL – WE CAN DO OR INVENT ANYTHING – IT IS SPIRITUAL.
An important aspect of arts training at the higher level is that young people are asked to consider the meaning, both personal and communal, of the work in which they are engaged. A majority of Americans believe that values such as integrity and seeking meaning in life are important. A very high percentage of Americans describe themselves as believing in God. There is a hunger for meaning. A central concern and function of the arts since prehistory has been to express and test the highest values of the culture and to make visible that which is not - the longing of people to see themselves as part of a transcendent reality.
