SPOTLIGHTS|
Articles
- Art
Children and the Arts
Take a moment and consider
this hypothetical scenario. What would it be worth to you, if
your children could add to their curriculum one area of study
that would help them:
• Learn more and faster in all other areas of the
curriculum, including math, science, reading and writing; New research indicates that a comprehensive arts education involving visual and performing arts, music and dance, can do all that and more. Yet, only a small percentage of Georgia students participate in some form of arts education, and Georgia ranks 48th on SAT scores. Art teachers in elementary schools are on the endangered species list and general teachers-to-be are not required to train in the arts. According to the latest status report on arts education, The Georgia Project, students in Georgia receive an average of 35 minutes a week in arts education. About 25% of high school students are graduating with some course work (which can range from one semester to four years), which means 75% are graduating with no art education. Georgia’s content standards are in the state-mandated Quality Core Curriculum (QCC). There are four major areas for all fine arts: • Artistic skills and knowledge: creating, producing
and performing The QCC can be reviewed on the Internet through the Georgia Department of Education’s Web site at www.doe.k12.ga.us. According to Susan Merritt, Past President of the Georgia Coalition for Arts Education, "Georgia has arts standards in the QCC. What we don’t have is the will to actually fund what we call a "mandated curriculum" that includes the arts. Every Georgia child deserves the whole curriculum. As it stands now, there are many "have-not" students in Georgia who only receive part of the mandated curriculum. When asked about an arts requirement for all students, education officials say they ‘loathe to dictate what students study.’ If that were the case, Georgia wouldn’t test just a few parts of the curriculum. It would all be tested. Obviously, the state dictates what must be taught and learned by imposing a test. The sad thing is that some students have an advantage because they study the entire curriculum, including the arts." Arts in Georgia need a forest fire at this point. Governor Barnes’ A+ Education Reform Act of 2000 shoves us back to reading and math with a seeming lack of awareness of how the arts can affect the tradional basics. That, along with recessions and budget cuts, have forced most Georgia schools to all but eliminate art programs. Thankfully, Georgia values it’s ball games so highly that it necessitates some music instruction in middle and secondary schools if for no other reason than to have bands to rally the ball players. In an era of back to traditional basics, accountability and measurable assessment, the arts are considered expensive frills whose success can not be measured by a simple test score. Elementary schools that do have art programs today are either magnet schools or the beneficiaries of parent volunteers, who hold fundraisers, start foundations and write grants to bring the arts in one form or another into their children’s schools. The result is a great inequality between schools. The lucky ones have qualified art teachers. Some of the others have artists in residence or parents volunteering as art docents. For example, Young Audiences of Atlanta’s Artists-in-Education Residency Program has been instrumental in exposing over 1.6 million students to visiting artists in the schools and communities of Georgia. Still the unlucky ones have none of the above. Advocates say the arts should not be considered a "frill" or "enrichment" activity, but part of the core curriculum, like science, math, reading and history. "The arts are basic. One of the earliest activities of infants and toddlers is to start drawing. Infants make musical sounds in the crib. These are all very much part of our human nature and to ignore them is to ignore part of ourselves," says Dr. Tim Benge, executive director of the California Alliance for Arts Education, an arts advocacy group. "Our world is getting more complex. There is a tremendous emphasis on higher order thinking skills like analysis, synthesis and evaluation and the arts are where those skills are developed." The Fine Arts Study Committee presented the following summary of recommendations to the Georgia State Board of Education on June 1999. As of today, no action has been taken. Elementary School 1.) Elementary Fine Arts (defined as art, dance, drama and music) should be separated from other curriculum areas in the funding formula. 2.) Georgia elementary (K-5) school students should receive a minimum of 120 weekly contact hours of instruction at each grade level K-5 (and grade six in K-6 schools) as follows: a) Students should receive 60 minutes of instruction in each of two of the fine arts areas (art, dance, drama or music) b) The choice among the fine arts areas should be at the discretion of the local school district, with the caveat that each discipline requires a sequential delivery of instruction to be effective. 3.) Fine Arts class sizes should not exceed regular classroom class sizes. 4.) The elementary funding formula for Fine Arts should provide for the above minimum instruction time. Middle School 5.) Middle school Fine Arts (defined as art, dance, drama and music) should be separated from other curriculum areas in the funding formula. 6.) Georgia middle school students should receive a minimum equivalent of one school year (135 contact hours) of instruction in Fine Arts during the course of a two- or three-year middle school program. In the Middle School Program Criteria description, Fine Arts should be defined as art, dance, drama or music, including band, chorus, general music, guitar, music appreciation and orchestra. The current list of funded Fine Arts subjects should be retained. 7.) The middle school funding formula should provide for the above minimum instruction time High School 8.) Establish a graduation requirement of one unit of study in a Fine Arts area for all students. 9.) Include performing arts (dance, drama, music) classes in the laboratory program definition for FTE funding. 10.) Limit instrumental music class size to 80 and choral music class size to 60. Additional Recommendations 11.) As part of the Georgia Education Report Card process, collect data to determine the availability of Fine Arts instruction to K-12 students. 12) Establish standards of accountability and an evaluation instrument to measure the quality of K-12 fine arts programs in the public schools of Georgia. 13) Provide for adequate coordination of Fine Arts programs statewide: a) require that local districts provide coordination of arts instruction, and b) restore state level coordination for Fine Arts to the previous level (one full time art and one full time music consultant/coordinator, with one dance and one drama contract consultant)." Georgia Council for the Arts, whose stated mission is to encourage excellence in the arts, to support the arts’ many forms of expression and to make the arts available to all Georgians by providing funding, programming and services, is also pushing for quality arts programs for all Georgia students. They maintain that an ideal arts program incorporates art, music, dance and performing arts, and is taught by qualified teachers, and is both sequential and comprehensive. It should be based on a written curriculum that would cover K-12. It would systematically instruct kids in both creating and performing in music and drama as well as in the skills kids need to respond to and interpret works of art. For such a program to become a reality, educators and parents need to treat art as seriously as they do other core subjects. "If the principal were to say we are not going to teach math, parents would picket and call 60 Minutes. That would be scandalous," says Mark Slavkin, Program Officer at the Getty Education Institute for the Arts in Los Angeles. "My concern is parents have been too willing to accept that reality (with the arts)." He believes that the psychology of thinking about arts programs as icing on the cake lets the policy makers off the hook and reinforces the idea that it’s not a core subject the schools should fund. When talking about art, try substituting the word math or science or history, Slavkin says. "Would we be as accepting that it’s not taught? Would we be as accepting that there is no money? Would we be doing it on a volunteer basis with parents? We continue to think about arts as extra. That’s what needs to change." Another small but positive step in the arts restoration movement is the creation of The Arts in Education Model Development. It is a $10 million discretionary grant program authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The goal of the program is to further develop model projects that effectively strengthen and integrate arts in elementary and middle school core curriculum. The grants will be made available to a handful of schools so that they may develop model projects that effectively strengthen and integrate arts in elementary and middle school core curriculum. The Georgia Council for the Arts sponsors programs such as the recent Georgia Arts in Education Challenge Program. It was designed to help public school systems further develop, implement, and expand curriculum-based kindergarten- fifth grade arts education. School systems were able to apply for grants in any or all of four artistic disciplines (dance, drama, music and visual arts). The Program targeted public school systems which partnered with their local cultural, business, and civic communities to bring basic arts education to grades K-5 on the same level with other Georgia Quality Core Curriculum subjects. While the application deadline for that program was June 2001, other programs still exist. Schools should contact Molly Allen, director of the Council’s Arts Education Program to investigate funding possibilities. Applicants may apply for grants for up to $50,000 per fiscal year.In many counties arts education falls completely in the hands of the Georgia Council of the Arts and Young Audiences of Atlanta programs. But even with the strongest use of these programs, Georgia children will lag behind other states in arts where more schools have full-time art teachers. Advocates of arts in education say, "It’s great to have parents volunteer, but you really have to say either you believe in arts education and what it can do to change kids lives or you don’t." If your children’s school has a comprehensive arts program that incorporates art, music, dance and performing arts, consider yourself and your kids lucky. If not, the arts movement may be slowly headed your way. Here are some ways parents can speed up the progress.- Send email and/or letters to State Board of Education members asking them to adopt mandatory art standards so schools will be required to provide arts programs. Albert J. Scott Peggy Nielson Cathy Henson, Vice Chair Carol S. Williams Linda C. Schrenko - Lobby Governor Roy Barnes to spend future Goals 2000 money on the arts. Also, tell him how important it is to have a standards-based arts education as part of your children’s core curriculum. Office of the Governor Fax: 404-657-7332 - Call, write or email your state assemblyman and state senator and tell them you want them to lobby for mandatory arts standards as part of the core curriculum. - Call, write, email or visit in person your school district’s superintendent and board members and tell them you want a comprehensive arts education as part of your children’s core curriculum. - Call, write or visit in person your school’s principal and discuss ways to bring the arts into your child’s school. - While waiting for a more comprehensive arts program that incorporates music, dance, theatre and visual arts, join an Art Vistas or art docents program. Based on an age-appropriate arts curriculum, volunteers take fine art prints into classrooms and discuss key principles of art. Some programs have hands-on components whereby students work on art projects associated with each lesson. If your school doesn’t have Art Vistas program, start one. - The Georgia Council for the Arts is an arts advocacy group with information and newsletters for arts activists, as well as grant monies available for Georgia schools. It’s website is at http://www.gaarts.org Georgia Council for the Arts
Anne Chappell Belden and Olya Fessard
Additional Information: Why are Arts so Important? |
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