The arts have always gotten short shrift in the schools, but the current standardized testing craze has put them in even greater jeopardy. At one elementary school in Oregon, however, the arts take center stage for a full week each year. The week includes the following themed days: (1) Dance Day; (2) Music Day; (3) Theater Day; and (4) Writing…

Educational psychologists frequently consider the arts to be emotive forms that might provide satisfaction--but not understanding. This article argues that if cognition is a matter of becoming aware, of perceiving, then the senses and the arts play a crucial role in providing essential resources for education. (Author/WD)

Arts education instills creativity, problem solving, discipline, and cooperation in young performers. Competencies learned in one art form are in some sense generic and transferable to other subjects. However, championing schooling in the arts on utilitarian grounds is misguided. The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for…

Art plays an integral role in civilizing society and its members. Through the visual arts we can directly comment on the human condition and begin to comprehend the complexity of our species and our multicultural and mutlilayered society. This article discusses how the arts' civilizing power can inform the education of all children. (15…

A veteran teacher educator has guided future teachers on an open-ended adventure into past landscapes, using various literary works, paintings, historical volumes, and curriculum history. Enlightenment thinkers assumed every question had only one possible answer. Science is one of many symbol systems used to construct meaning. Metaphors deepen and…

The existential contexts of education reach far beyond the conceptions of Goals 2000 or the appalling actualities of family breakdown, homelessness, violence, and other "savage inequalities." Classroom encounters with the arts can move the young to imagine, extend, and renew. If the arts' significance for growth, inventiveness, and…

At her principal's request, a sixth grade teacher/composer formed a high-quality chorus of fifth and sixth graders. The chorus was a great success despite lack of strong administrative support. Unfortunately, the chorus disbanded after the author's resignation, resulting from lack of leadership, interest, and attendance. Meanwhile, the central…

A recent Rockefeller Foundation report concluded that a lively life in the humanities depended on vigorous engagement with reading, writing, and cultures. Collaboratives for Humanities and Arts Teaching (CHART), created to foster humanistic education, targets classrooms of average students from impoverished urban and rural districts. Such…

America 2000 presents an educational reform agenda that neglects the arts. Prevailing misconceptions of the arts are based on a massive misunderstanding of their role in human development and education. The arts contribute significantly by celebrating the value of multiple perspectives and nuances in problem solving, relating form to content, and…

Durham (North Carolina) School of the Arts' transformation in 5 years from a run-down, segregated facility to a highly desirable magnet school is proof that a school accessible to the whole community can succeed. Students are chosen by lottery and are showing appreciable academic growth on state tests. (MLH)