The
arts are windows on the world in the same way that science helps us
see the world around us. Literature, music, theater, the visual arts,
the media (film, photography, and television), architecture, and
dance reveal aspects about ourselves, the world around us, and the
relationship between the two. In 1937, German planes flying for
Franco in the Spanish civil war bombed a defenseless village as a
laboratory experiment, killing many of the inhabitants. In Guernica,
Pablo Picasso painted his outrage in the form of a vicious bull
smugly surveying a scene of human beings screaming, suffering, and
dying. These powerful images etch in our minds the horror of a
senseless act of war.
Similar themes
have been represented in other art forms. Benjamin Britten's War
Requiem gives poignant musical and poetic expression to the
unpredictable misfortunes of war's carnage. Britten juxtaposes the
verses of Wilfred Owen, a poet killed during World War I, with the
ancient scriptures of the Mass for the Dead. In Euripides' play The
Trojan Women, the ancient art of theater expresses the grievous
sacrifices that war forces human beings to endure. The film Platoon,
written and directed by Oliver Stone, is a more recent exposition of
the meaning of war, a theme that has been treated again and again
with telling effect in literature throughout the ages. The theme of
human beings inflicting suffering upon other human beings has also
been expressed through dance. One example is Dreams, a modern dance
choreographed by Anna Sokolow, in which the dreams become nightmares
of Nazi concentration camps.
This theme and
many others are investigated, expressed, and communicated through the
arts. Through such artistic representations, we share a common
humanity. What would life be without such shared expressions? How
would such understandings be conveyed? Science is not the sole
conveyor of truth. While science can explain a sunrise, the arts
convey its emotive impact and meaning. Both are important. If human
beings are to survive, we need all the symbolic forms at our command
because they permit us not only to preserve and pass along our
accumulated wisdom but also to give voice to the invention of new
visions. We need all these ways of viewing the world because no one
way can say it all.
The arts are acts
of intelligence no less than other subjects. They are forms of
thought every bit as potent as mathematical and scientific symbols in
what they convey. The Egyptian pyramids can be "described" in
mathematical measurements, and science and history can hypothesize
about how, why, and when they were built, but a photograph or
painting of them can show us other equally important aspects of their
reality. The arts are symbol systems that permit us to give
representation to our ideas, concepts, and feelings in a variety of
forms that can be "read" by other people. The arts were invented to
enable us to react to the world, to analyze it, and to record our
impressions so that they can be shared. Like other symbol systems,
the arts require study before they can be fully understood.
Is there a better
way to gain an understanding of ancient Greek civilization than
through their magnificent temples, statues, pottery, and poetry? The
Gothic cathedrals inform us about the Middle Ages just as surely as
the skyscraper reveals the Modern Age. The arts may well be the most
telling imprints of any civilization. In this sense they are living
histories of eras and peoples, and records and revelations of the
human spirit. One might well ask how history could possibly be taught
without their inclusion.
Today's schools
are concerned, as they rightly should be, with teaching literacy. But
literacy should not-must not-be limited to the written word. It
should also encompass the symbol systems of the arts. If our concept
of literacy is defined too narrowly as referring to just the symbol
systems of language, mathematics, and science, children will not be
equipped with the breadth of symbolic tools they need to fully
represent, express, and communicate the full spectrum of human life.
What constitutes a
good education anyway? Today, one major goal has become very
practical: employability. Children should know how to read, write,
and compute so that they can assume a place in the work force. Few
would argue with that. Considering the demands that young people will
face tomorrow in this technological society, the need for literacy in
English language, mathematics, science, and history is critical. But
this objective should not allow us to overlook the importance of the
arts and what they can do for the mind and spirit of every child and
the vitality of American schooling.
Educational
administrators and school boards need to be reminded that schools
have a fundamental obligation to provide the fuel that will ignite
the mind, spark the aspirations, and illuminate the total being. The
arts can often serve as that fuel. They are the ways we apply our
imagination, thought, and feeling through a range of "languages" to
illuminate life in all its mystery, misery, delight, pity, and
wonder. They are fundamental enablers that can help us engage more
significantly with our inner selves and the world around us. As we
first engage one capacity, we enable others, too, to emerge. Given
the current dropout rate, whether the entry vehicle to learning for a
particular human being happens to be the arts, the sciences, or the
humanities is less important than the assured existence of a variety
of such vehicles.
The first wave of
the education reform movement in America focused on improving the
quality of public education simply by raising standards and
introducing more challenging course requirements at the high school
level. The second wave has focused on improving the quality of the
nation's teachers. The third wave should concentrate on the
students-how to activate and inspire them, how to induce
self-discipline, and how to help them to discover the joys of
learning, the uniqueness of their beings, the wonders and
possibilities of life, the satisfaction of achievement, and the
revelations that literacy, broadly defined, provides. The arts are a
central and fundamental means to attain these objectives.
We do not need
more and better arts education simply to develop more and better
artists. There are far more important reasons for schools to provide
children with an education in the arts. Quite simply, the arts are
the ways we human beings "talk" to ourselves and to each other. They
are the language of civilization through which we express our fears,
our anxieties, our curiosities, our hungers, our discoveries, and our
hopes. They are the universal ways by which we humans still play
make-believe, conjuring up worlds that explain the ceremonies of our
lives. The arts are not just important; they are a central force in
human existence. Every child should have sufficient opportunity to
acquire familiarity with these languages that so assist us in our
fumbling, bumbling, and all-too-rarely brilliant navigation through
this world. Because of this, the arts should be granted major status
in every child's schooling.
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About: Charles
Fowler
In his book Can We
Rescue the Arts for America's Children? Dr. Charles Fowler said, "The
arts are not just important; they are a central force in human
existence. Each citizen should have sufficient and equal
opportunities to learn these languages, which so assist us in our
fumbling, bumbling, and all-too-rarely brilliant navigation through
this world. Because of this, the arts should be granted major status
in American schooling. That is a cause worthy of our energies."
As a practitioner
of several arts with a background of teaching on every level, Dr.
Fowler, who is now deceased, was an eloquent spokesman on behalf of
the arts in education. He lectured and consulted extensively on this
topic throughout the United States and abroad, and wrote more than
two hundred articles, as well as numerous books and reports. For
fifteen years he served as Education Editor of Musical America
magazine, and was also editor of Music Educators' Journal. Among his
publications is Sing!, a textbook for secondary school choral
classes. He was director of National Cultural Resources Inc. in
Washington, D.C.
Dr. Fowler
received a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and a
Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University. He wrote
educational materials for the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan
Opera, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts.
He was the script
writer for the grand opening of the Epcot Center for Walt Disney
Productions, for the grand opening of Knoxville World's Fair, and he
wrote scripts for a number of music programs on National Public
Radio. He has prepared scripts for José Ferrar, Richard
Thomas, Gregory Peck, President Gerald Ford, and Dinah Shore, among
others.