Where the puck is going to be

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I couldn't disagree more with these comments. I didn't see anything in the origional post that suggested that out of school time arts instruction should replace in school instruction.

I think pitting in school instruction against out of school time instruction in the arts creates a false dichotomy that has nothing to do with what is good for children. Like intrinsic-vs-instrumental, specialists-vs-teaching artists, sequential arts education-vs-integration, the answer should be both/and NOT either/or.

Children in high resourced suburbs and private schools get ALL of these things. They go to private lessons and ballet classes after school. They learn to use a camera and play the guitar just because they think they might find it of interest. They go to camps in the summer to get better and better at what they are passionate about learning. Why should we expect children in our public inner city schools to go without because we are afraid that another kind of instruction will somehow be diminished or marginalized? As if in the end, one way of getting turned on and receiving instruction is all a child needs to get a quality arts education, or that one way is more important or valuable than another.

If we are serious about leveling the arts learning playing field at a systemic level for students in urban school districts, we can’t afford to ignore the opportunities that out of school time offers us.

Edward, I'll resist responding with a puckish and vulgar pun, so instead I'll just add support to David and Jane on this one. The problem we face is getting and keeping the arts within the school day, with arts as central to education. The arts are relatively thriving in many afterschool and non-school settings.

Ed, I must second David Shookhoff's comment. Once you relegate the arts to second hand status in non-required,non-graded, non sequential and usually non-certified instruction, you've taken the heart out the arts as education for every child.

Moving the arts into the after-school arena poses a serious risk of further marginalization. Administrators struggling to find room for everything in the regular school-day schedule may leap at the idea of relegating arts activities to outside-of-school time slots, thereby precluding the possibility of integrating them with the rest of the teaching and learning that happens between 8:00AM – 3PM. Enlightened principals have in some cases adopted a both/and strategy, scheduling arts classes late in the school day and then extending the work into the after-school time period (often utilizing collaborations between school-based arts teachers and outside providers.) But moving the arts completely out of the school day would be a serious policy mistake. If that’s where the puck is going, let’s get our defense to check it and send it back the other way.

Nice to see a hockey fan among the crowd. The Great One's father, Walter Gretzky, used to tell his son: "I will meet you in the winner's circle."

Go Rangers.