(This article, reprinted with permission, featuring the Bexley schools, appeared in Bexley News on March 12, 2008)  5/11/08

School board, district united in support of arts education

The United States has remained a world leader for the past two centuries because imagination, innovation and creativity have been the determinants of its success.

As Dana Gioia, chair of the National Endowment of the Arts, said, “If the U.S. is to compete effectively with the rest of the world in the new global marketplace, we need a system that grounds all students in pleasure, beauty and wonder. It is the best way to create citizens who are awakened not only to their humanity, but to the human enterprise that they inherit and will perpetuate.”

If we expect to perpetuate our successes as a nation, we must de-emphasize the growing culture of testing and place greater emphasis on the arts.

America is caught up in an unfortunate frenzy of multiple-choice testing which focuses on the lowest level of teaching and learning. We must resist this trend and offer a curriculum filled with opportunities to engage students in activities designed to allow for creative expression.

These opportunities need to bridge content areas and be delivered in an integrated manner.

Imagination must be combined with the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to spawn the innovation and advances necessary for global competition.

Harvard’s Project Zero research has found that students exposed to serious instruction in visual arts, music, dance and drama develop capacities to recognize the hidden root of a problem, make the best choices in ambiguous circumstances and synthesize resources necessary to solve problems in a novel manner.

According to Lois Hetland, a research associate with Project Zero, high quality arts education combined with study of core academics will allow students to solve problems with non-routine thinking.

Hetland also states, “Arts teach envisioning, observing, informed risk-taking, learning from mistakes and comfort with uncertainty. They emphasize collaboration, expression, reflection and articulation of deeply held ideas. These are foundational dispositions our schools need to develop in future citizens and leaders.”

On a more practical note, research has supported that employability is generally higher for students who take at least two arts courses in school. Young people who had studied music or graphic communications are also among the most employable after leaving school.

Also, students who have been recently employed and took arts-related subjects in school are less likely to find themselves in a negative labor market three years later.
Bexley has traditionally been a leader in the support of the arts and arts programming in kindergarten through high school. There are full time art and music teachers in each of the elementary schools and at the middle and high schools. All are practicing professionals with certificates in their fields, which is unusual in a public school setting.

Orchestra and band classes are available at every grade level beginning with the intermediate grades in elementary school.

Six years ago, classes in drama and theater were added to the list of opportunities available to students at all grade levels within the school district.

Bexley’s Board of Education places a high value on the arts. The budgetary support for the arts has continued to increase each year. While student enrollment has declined in the school district over the past several years, staffing for arts programs has risen.

Recognizing the importance of the arts, the board has been willing to allocate resources to these programs to ensure that they remain a critical component of the district instructional programming.

Please take a moment to commend your board members for their exemplary support of the arts.

This column was provided by Michael Johnson, Superintendent of Bexley City Schools.

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