Alternate Article # 2 by Carol Thesing

Art for the Brains Sake by Robert Sylvester, Education Leadership, Vol. 56 #3, 1998

What is happening to art in our school systems? Art has always been seen as important throughout history from the hand carved intricate beads discovered in ancient sites to energy and cost of choreographing a figure skaters routine. Art is seen as a valuable form of expression and feelings.

Why would we reduce and sometimes eliminate funding for school art programs? Some say it is to increase school efficiency and economy. Good art programs, like good education programs, are very difficult to evaluate in the standards we use to measure. It is very difficult to test creativity, interpretation to another form, or the ability to perform. Most often these are measured by public performance, singling out only one aspect of art.

According to Robert Sylvester, evidence from brain sciences and evolutionary psychology increasingly suggest the arts play an important part in brain development and maintenance.

Art is a part of every aspect of life. This article focuses on two key elements of art. First being the heightened motor skills we call performance and secondly the heightened appreciation of our environment.

No one would debate the importance of motor skills but some have a difficult time in relating it to art. Our sensory system and finely controlled movement are central to the visual, auditory, and movement arts from the fine motor control of an illustrator to the practiced skill of an NBA team.

To develop controlled muscular functioning, a child must be taught. To master highly specialized movement patterns, the teaching needs to start at an early age. Michael Jordan is an interesting example. At 31, he decided to switch to baseball but with all his athletic ability and resolve, he didnt do as well as he hoped. He had learned different skills.

Some people move artistically and others just watch others move. People who dont sing, go to concerts. People who dont paint, buy paintings. One amazing part of art is people are simulated by observing or doing. Both doer and observer discover something about the world and people around them.

The arts arent about the security of a correct answer but rather about a jack-of-all-trades emotional brain that has quick multiple, inventive solutions to most problems. George Bernard Shaw suggested that we use a mirror to see our face and the arts to see our soul.

I am amazed at the inability of administrators and school boards to see the importance of such a fundamental part of life. It saddens me greatly when educators miss a vital part of education and seem to be unwilling to learn.

When talking with fellow teachers, I received mixed reactions. Elementary teachers could see the need and connection to brain development and life skills much more easily than secondary educators. I felt this came partly because of secondary teachers trying to protect their own turf. I also found secondary teachers more fragmented in their thinking about education.

-- Anonymous, April 28, 1999

Answers

Carol, I can relate to your ideas about the need for experiencing art at an early age. I was lucky to have the same wonderful art teacher from age 11 to 18 in our small town school. He helped me appreciate beauty and nature at an early age--what a gift! I also see a great need for adults to integrate art and creativity into their lives which is often dismissed by others as unimportant.

-- Anonymous, April 29, 1999