I am the least likely candidate to be an advocate for arts education in public schools. I’m not a parent seeking a quality education for my child. I’m not a teacher or artist defending my profession. I’m not a legislator seeking solutions for education reform. I didn’t graduate from a public high school. I didn’t even study liberal arts in college.
But I believe the problems facing our current education system – dropout rates, proficiency levels, remedial courses, violence in classrooms – will affect every person in this country. Any education reform that is not comprehensive and does not integrate the arts will ultimately fail.
There are many professional challenges facing today’s high school graduates. Warping the traditional career path is offshoring. Daniel Pink, author of “A Whole New Mind,” frames the problem with three simple numbers: 15-2010-0. If only 15 percent of the population of India received an advanced education or training, the result is 150 million competitive individuals – more than the entire U.S. workforce. In 2010, India will be the largest English-speaking country in the world. And the last figure? The cost of communication is practically nothing.
Technology, communication and automation are creating competition for a host of careers within our borders. For example, TurboTax has enabled people to manage more complicated tax returns sans an accountant. The site allows couples to file for a lawyer-free, no-fault divorce for just $239.
These changes are challenging the long-held belief that careers like engineering, accounting and law are “safe” while a liberal arts education is imprudent.
The only way our students can compete in this brave new world is by acquiring a safe set of skills. Transferable skills, such as communication. Creative problem-solving. Collaboration. Critical thinking. Innovation.
These skills can be applied to any career. Above all, a computer cannot emulate them, nor can foreign competitors easily duplicate them. These are the skills of the arts.
While jobs in law, engineering, accounting and medicine will never cease to exist, they will need to adapt. That’s why universities across the country have already taken strides toward what Pink calls the Conceptual Age. MBA courses at schools like MIT, NYU and Duke have incorporated improv in their curriculum to teach students creativity and composure under pressure. Medical students are now required to tour art museums between pathology and microbiology lessons to hone their observational skills.
Since only a fraction of high school students complete an advanced degree, we may miss a large chunk of our future workforce by not taking a similar approach in primary and secondary education.
Choice seems to be the primary factor. Real limitations on time, money and resources force decision-makers to make tough choices and ultimately cut the school day up like a pie. This divide-and-conquer approach to education causes even primary disciplines to engage in a boxing match.
Tough choices. I get it. Why would anyone in their right mind pick theater over literacy? The logical solution to a child who can’t read is to spend more time on reading and cut out other activities.
But why can’t this child read at grade level? Could it be because he isn’t interested in school? Maybe acting in a play or writing a song for a music class will engage this student in the written word.
Why is this child failing in science? Could it be that she is a tactile learner and would benefit from using dance to study centripetal force?
The greatest challenge in the next few decades is not the openness of the world as much as narrow points of view. The concept that we need to pick and choose to learn. Either we have time and resources for science or social studies. Either we cut out electives or we face lower test scores.
We can combat tough choices and tough times by infusing the arts and the word “and” into education reform. Math and music. Social studies and theater. Literary and visual arts. Left brain and right brain.
If we all become advocates for arts education – even the least likely candidates – then parents, educators and legislators will have the power to produce a world-class education system and kids who are ready to take on the world.
Dina Chaiffetz is marketing manager for a nonprofit arts-education organization and owner of the Eurban Art Company. E-mail her at dmchaz5@yahoo.com
