If you haven’t heard by now, Arne Duncan, US Secretary of Education is having a conference call with just about everyone in the United States interested in arts education. Of course you have to register.
It’s like a giant arts ed party line. For those old enough to know what a party line was…
If I were asking a question in the conference call, my question would be:
Mr. Secretary, thank you so much for creating this historic conference call, for recognizing the importance of arts education as a core subject, and for the extraordinary articulation by a US Education Secretary of the importance of arts education to education leaders across the nation.
I would like to hear more from you about how you believe arts education will flourish in light of your desire to see teachers evaluated on student performance on test scores, particularly when such performance is mostly limited to standardized test scores in reading and math.
What’s your question for Arne Duncan???
Richard, I would have asked the same question, and while the question was attempted, it was essentially skirted. Quite frankly, the conference call sounded a lot more like a 30 minute infomercial than the give-and-take most of us expected.
Agreed.
While I can’t recall exactly how the question was asked, it was presented in such a super highly respectful way that I thought it became obscured. I have often felt that our field is just a bit too grateful during these types of events. It’s great to be respectful and appreciative of the a public official doing his or her job by meeting with one of their consituencies, but I think we overdo it, and in a way, it illuminates some of the immaturity of the field.
I’ve done it myself, believe me, when I should have asked one question of a superintendent, but asked another, or by the time I finished thanking the official, the point was already lost.