For more
than twenty years researchers have been uncovering positive
relationships between arts education and cognitive development in
children. With benefits ranging from the enhancement of vocabulary
and math skills, to the development of spatial-reasoning, arts
education has come a long way from the days when it was considered to
be a lot of fluff.
Given this evidence, one might
expect America's schools to be alive with the sound of music. The
reality, however, is quite different. Sandra Gibson of Americans for
the Arts argues that "It's really hard to build support for arts and
music at the local level."
She isn't kidding. In late 1997,
the Department of Education issued a report card on the state of arts
education programs in our public schools and -- let's just say you
wouldn't want to hang this one on the fridge. On releasing the
report, Education Secretary Riley announced that, "The study verifies
that most American children are infrequently or never given serious
instruction in music, arts, or theater. That's wrong."
What's the problem? Gary Marks of
the American Association of School Superintendents says that one
important reason why arts education isn't more common in public
schools is due to the growing emphasis on high-stakes assessment
tests. Because these tests focus on core subjects such as math and
science, they've had the predictable result of pushing arts further
to the margins. "When a school's standing is on the line, where do
you think they're going to focus their attention?" asks Marks.
According to the Department of
Education, America has flunked art. So, what's our punishment? Beyond
the possibility that we aren't developing tomorrow's Mozarts and
Picassos, we may also be putting ourselves at economic risk. As
Richard Gurin of the National Alliance of Business put it, "Ideas are
what built American business, and it is the arts that build ideas and
nurture a place in the mind for them to grow. Arts education programs
can help repair weaknesses in American education and better prepare
workers for the twenty-first century."
Advocates like Gibson believe that
making arts a priority in schools requires better teacher training.
But it's also clear that schools will have to give it more
weight-even if they can't measure its effectiveness using multiple
choice.