Arts Curriculum-Other/Class Reaction/Reading Reaction

After examining Maxine Greene's essay on the arts-aesthetic curriculum, I found our class discussion to be intriguing and informative. I enjoyed being able to discuss English and literature in its merits, but also hearing from other classmates who were able to discuss their discipline as well. Brad's comments about math were insightful, explaining some frustration with the rigidity of a math curriculum and its ability to stifle student thought and creativity. I also valued Adranna and Chris' comments on music education, which is not something I know much about. Coming into this class, I thought that an arts education should be diminished (music, art, chorus) in lieu of a stronger curriculum that would enhance student knowledge, especially since students are underachieving and many are not getting the education that they need.

I cam across an article that discusses the merits of arts education, as well as the significant impact it has had on student achievement.

http://www.edutopia.org/arts-music-curriculum-child-development

The article asserts that arts education helps achieve what we as a nation are demanding from public education- social/emotional development, civic engagement, and academic achievement. Arts education is also closely linked to improvements in math and literacy scores. Many of Greene's points are echoed in this article, exhibiting that arts education is highly beneficial to students, but acknowledges its decline with decreased funding.

The article also discusses top-down mandates versus implementation in the classroom, such as Tyack and Cuban outline in their book. In order to effectively transform our schools into ones that are enhancing student knowledge and education, arts education is essential.

"When you think about the purposes of education, there are three," Horne says. "We're preparing kids for jobs. We're preparing them to be citizens. And we're teaching them to be human beings who can enjoy the deeper forms of beauty. The third is as important as the other two."

Could the problem be something OTHER than teachers, perhaps?

After responding to Liz’s post earlier today, I continued thinking about the real “problems” with American education. A lot of people seem to want to place blame squarely on the shoulders of educators themselves, which is one of the reasons nothing seems to be improving.

Executive decisions about policy are determined in a very corporate manner, by people sitting in rooms far away from an actual school, looking at a spreadsheet that has reduced individual learners to a series of “representative” numbers. As Tyack and Cuban discussed, input from actual teachers tends to fall on deaf ears, and many of the policies that seep down into schools seem to tie educators hands more than help prepare students for any sort of existence in the “real world” (If all of life’s tasks were resolved by bubbling in answers on a scantron sheet, this might be different). America lags behind many other countries in terms of educational opportunities, and yet many people will tell you that this is still the greatest nation for receiving an education. These people are either very optimistic, or horribly uninformed. Either way, they’ve probably never examined schools in the “corridor of shame.”

Problems in schools don’t stop and start with policy-makers, though. When schools fail to produce thoughtful, competent children, parents are always ready to point their fingers in the direction of the teachers. However, real educational reform starts at home. All too often, parents are uninterested in what their children do at home and take absolutely no responsibility to teach their children. Parents generally leave the education of their children to teachers and television sets, and they are fast to blame youth problems on both. Where is the accountability? (Have we learned NOTHING from Crosby, Stills, and Nash?!)

As we have learned, teachers tend to be pretty low on the reform food chain, generally forced to enact policies that they know are flawed or won’t work on any practical level in the classroom. And yet, when children are failing to achieve scholastic goals, it is always the teacher who is blamed. What about the careless parents, who have shirked the responsibility of educating their own children? Or the policy makers, the people sitting in an office looking at state-wide scores? It seems like teachers get a bad rap and are perennial scapegoats in this mess.

In the world of frivolous law suits we live in, it has never been easier to shirk responsibility and blame the party that is honestly trying to do all it can to make the situation better when the true blame rests solely on the one doing the pointing. Are teachers responsible for their students? Absolutely, but only for as long as they’re in the classroom. There are about 22 hours on any given day where children will not be in the care of a specific teacher. My point in all of this is that as long as it is enough for parents, administrators, and legislators to simply place blame on teachers, thereby liberating themselves from any wrongdoing, then the real educational reform this country needs will never happen, because the REAL problems will continue to be overlooked.

we can't sail to tortuga all by our onesies, savvy?

here's an interesting little editorial, noting that teachers alone cannot be expected to enact change in our scholols.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090429/OPINION/904290314/1003/TOWN02

Other: CMS teacher arrested

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/597/story/693131.html

This article was in the Charlotte observer today. There was not a lot of information about the incident, but it did say a 37 yr old male middle school teacher was arrested. The article said he was charged with "taking indecent liberties with a child and disseminating harmful materials to minors. I think the post at the bottom that said "what is wrong with these adults" is what got to me the most. It is always terrible to hear about children being abused, but especially when it involves their teacher. When parents drop their children off at school, the last thing they should have to worry about is their children being abused.

Reading Reaction:The Artistic-Aesthetic Curriculum

As a middle schooler I had the opportunity to go to a arts magnet school. At this arts magnet school we were instructed on what was in the box of need to know but were encouraged to use our creativity to think reasonably outside the box. Greene hits on this important conceptof outside the box thinking when she states that creativity allows us to draw new patterns in the created world. Furthermore she clearly identifies the main obstacles to using such creativity in the current classroom; our own habits. Habits are easy and predictable but new and exciting like creativity.
Greene further explains how we can branch out of those habits. What makes a great performer or a great story teller? Simple, the ability to empathize with the charactor they are portraying. Greene ecourages us to dig deep and think of a time when imagination, "released through encounters with the arts" lead us to new ideas.
Another potential downfall of this type of art use in school is the current grammar of schooling. With such strict criteria for passing and grade advancement how does our current grammar of schooling allow us to assess students who think outside the box?

Funding for NC Schools

Attached is an interesting link regarding funding for NC schools. SC is not the only one cutting funds.
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?id=6748140&section=news/local

Class reaction #3- Hailey Hughes

I find the arts to be an important part of learning! Music, art classes, creative writing classes, and even photography I consider to be part of an artistic aesthetic curriculum. Students need time throughout their demanding day of school to express themselves creatively. As mentioned in class last week, "art enables you to imagine and participate in construction of your own life." Studies in the fine arts indicate that classical music, in particular, can help students with their spatial temporal reasoning, such as memorization skills. For example, students who listened to classical music compared to other students who listened to no music or a different genre of music memorized more words compared to the other students (Mozart Effect). Also, students who do well in music, such as playing the piano or another instrument, tend to perform better in mathematics. Another importance of the artistic aesthetic curriculum is that it generally allows for exchange of opinions. Math, for example, generally has one answer that students have to formulate. However, in art, students are given the opportunity to express their views, regardless if they are completely different from other classmates. Art also encourages participation and interaction among students. In a way, art encourages students to respond, and helps them to imagine the possibilities to exist for themselves. A good example mentioned in class is a 3 day period in art class where students painted their impression of jazz. This assignment is a great example of allowing students to become independent from finding that one "right" answer. Again, I strongly believe that the arts are a vital part of a students' everyday curriculum!