5 steps to make American arts education flourish

Welcome to the ArtsBound Newsletter. Every Tuesday, I usually share three thoughts or insights meant to help performing arts students and young professionals flourish in their life and career. Inspired by a dream I had, I wrote a piece about the state of American arts. I thought it would be an appropriate newsletter for one week out from the election.

- 6-minute read - 

(NOTE: I started ArtsBound because I believe the world would be a better place with more people living their true calling. If you know a student or young professional who is searching for their niche in the performing arts world, consider forwarding this email to them. If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up to receive my newsletter every Tuesday. It's free.)

A few days ago, I dreamt that the sitting president of the United States of America had invited me to speak at a major press conference on the state of arts education in the country. In the dream, I was sitting around a long wooden table with individuals from other fields. Some ran through what they were going to say, and their presentations seemed under-prepared and not very compelling - almost disingenuous.

I sat in the room thinking... half about what I would say so as to not look so unprepared, and half about what the purpose of the press conference was in the first place. 

It struck me - as I slowly roused and began to realize that I was dreaming - that the president had assembled this group of people as a self-produced State of the Union to make things look better than they were and encourage voters to support him in the upcoming election.

This is not a piece on partisan politics; I think any incumbent politician out of touch with their ethical core, regardless of party, might put together such a scheme. But as I lie in bed after waking (wanting to convince myself that I wouldn’t be roped in as a co-swindler), I continued to think about what I would say so as to be honest about my perception of arts education in America, should the red light of the camera ever turn my way.

Admittedly, having not conducted exhaustive studies on American arts education, I probably lack the credentials of a recognized expert. However, as someone who taught music and theatre for 11+ years in the public schools, read a good bit about educational theory and trends in the US, and now serves as a nonprofit music education administrator, I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about the subject.

Here is what I have to offer.

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Since the words of John Adams that recognized the arts as among the highest endeavors of humankind, Americans have been proud to live in a country that affords them with the freedom to practice self-expression and celebrate the cultural richness of its people.

Adams’ thesis is admirable and rational. However, it can also be said that the arts have never waited their turn to be the focus of our attention. In the midst of war, famine, and natural disasters, humans have always continued to dance, write poetry, play music, paint, and sing with one another.

It follows that the arts may be seen as an essential aspect of the human experience, critical to us making sense of our hardships and easing them.

Americans are fortunate to live in a country that values the arts in education. When young people study the arts, they benefit from a number of positive outcomes:

1. Their self-esteem increases as they live into and learn to express the core of who they are in words, images, sounds, and movement;

2. Their confidence is bolstered as their abilities improve and as they share their works with others; and

3. They develop creative problem-solving skills that are critical to address the global issues of our time.

However, the way we value arts education in our rhetoric is not always matched with how we invest our resources. Thusly, American arts education is threatened by three substantial issues:

1. The arts still play second fiddle to reading and math;

2. The education system has built-in practices that hinder, rather that foster, creative thinking; and

3. Entire populations of young people are limited in their opportunities to develop their creative capacities due to racial and social inequities in our public schools.

In order for American arts education to flourish, offering the value we so often talk about, I recommend the following:


1. Change the way we talk (and therefore think) about the arts in schools.

In many elementary and middle schools across the country, the group of classes that are NOT language arts, math, science, or social studies are often referred to as ‘specials’, ‘related arts’, ‘unified arts’, or some other term that suggests that they are supplemental rather than integral to the curriculum.

Students spend less time in these courses than the others. The number of students taught by arts teachers within a given term are often anywhere from three to twenty times (!) the number of students taught by an elementary classroom teacher or middle school math teacher, making it more difficult to form teacher-student relationships. Professional development is rarely designed with these teachers in mind.

Eliminating this type of disciplinary segregation would help contribute to a flourishing arts education system.


2. Address inequities in educational resources.

The New York Times recently produced a popular and provocative podcast titled Nice White Parents. The five-episode series reveals systemic hoarding of educational resources for majority-white schools to the detriment of Black and Brown students. The show does well to unpack how complex and engrained these systems are, but also how easy they can be altered when the political will (White will) is present.

We can’t rave about how wonderful American arts education is until we work to address the ways in which our educational systems are blatantly failing to serve so many of our young people. 


3. End the over-reliance on quantitative assessments.

I’ve written before about how quantitative grading in schools narrows the focus of student thinking, effectively cutting out creative processes (see Dan Pink’s well-known TED Talk on motivation).

We are living in an age of accountability in which everything must be measured and standardized. I’ve watched students, fixated on percentages, ignore thoughtful and constructive feedback only to ask, “How can I raise my grade?”. As rubrics get written for every imaginable classroom experience, otherwise meaningful and creative endeavors become a series of boxes to check before a student can catch their next dopamine-producing glimpse at their final grade.

I should be clear: this method of assessment is appropriate for some tasks, but not those that require creativity or curiosity.

Knowing this, schools like Community High School in Roanoke, VA assess their students using only deep narrative, encouraging progress, reflection, and relationship-building.


4. Reduce (or eliminate) mandated testing.

Much has been said about this topic, so I’ll be brief here. Standardized testing reinforces the systemic fixation on quantitative assessment I just discussed, as well the ranking of schools and students. As tests become more high-stakes, school leaders devote more class time to teaching students how to take the tests. That means even less class time allotted for the arts.


5. Make teaching a desirable profession.

From my experience, most arts teachers love what they teach. The majority also love working with young people. However, few of them would identify public schools as their preferred work environment. Between the factors mentioned above, politics, and a lack of autonomy, more and more teachers are leaving the profession they love in search of work they can morally stand behind (see Doris Santoro’s work on teacher demoralization).

This is a complex issue without a single solution, but decent pay, less governmental mandates, and the recognition of teacher expertise are all part of the way forward.

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What’s interesting about these action items, is that very few of them are ultimately controlled by people who work in schools. Policy makers - be those in congress or those who sit on the local school board - have much more power in these matters. Parents (White parents especially) also have more influence than they are typically aware of.

So, one week from Election Day, I encourage us to reflect on the ways we can elevate American arts education through the power of our voice and our vote.


See you next week!
Lee

PS - I started ArtsBound because I believe the world would be a better place with more people living their true calling. If you know a student or young professional who is searching for their niche in the performing arts world, consider forwarding this email to them. If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up to receive my newsletter every Tuesday. It's free.