Guest Blog: Jane Remer, CliffNotes: Why The Arts as Education: Urgent Reflections at the End of Another Challenging Year

Welcome back Jane Remer, to Dewey21C. Jane brings to us an end of the year reflection, provoked by one of my recent posts. Jane gives us something to think about as we head towards the new year. –RK

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Jane Remer’s CliffNotes:

Why the Arts as Education: Urgent Reflections at the End of Another Challenging Year

December 13, 2010

Made in America: Our Cultural Heritage/December 13, 2010 Post, Richard Kessler:
… So, why the arts? For this moment, in memory of John Lennon, I will say that it is because it helps to expand the hearts and minds of our citizens, providing a context and meaning for their lives and world, helping to create a pathway for them to be happy, productive, and ready to participate in a democracy.

I once did a survey of the various rationales for the arts in/as/for education. I was curious to learn how many would come up with different reasons to support them in schooling, K-12. As I recall, I assembled almost fifty of them from around the country in various books, articles, research papers, advocacy statements and the like.

Thematically, the reasons broke down into categories:

Arts for
– Aesthetic awareness and understanding
– Cultural heritage
– Citizenship
– Democracy
– International relationships and understanding
– The creation and development of mind
– The creation and development of body
– Socialization
– Respectful behavior and collaboration
– Creation
– Imagination
– Invention
– Language and Communication
– Physical and mental health and therapy
– Balm to the “souls” of prisoners and others trapped or confined
– Means by which to achieve other artistic or non-artistic ends
– Useful to improve scores on literacy and other tests
– Entertainment, enrichment, diversion
– School development and instructional depth and change
– Add your own ….

Very few of the “claims” or purposes above have been reliably tested. We have volumes of words and information gathered from observation, correlation and clinical interviews, but so far, we have been unable to hit the research jackpot of cause/arts and effect/fill in the blanks. I believe that someday, a design that mixes and triangulates hard and soft data rigorously collected, analyzed and interpreted will begin to provide solid evidence of the value of the arts as education in a variety of situations, including school classrooms. We are not there yet.

Stuck as we are in yet another recession, struggling financially and obsessed with accountability while others lay the blame of our circumstances and our schooling on teachers, unions and principals, we remain a guileful nation. We attend to the current version of the powerful corporate rich and robber barons as they (who know nothing of public education or the challenges of schooling) pontificate on what ails us and how to fix it. In this environment, the arts just don’t stand a chance, in the community, or in the schools, against the barrage of criticism and lunatic alternatives, and on January 1, it’s going to be worse with a house and senate divided.

I strongly believe that as a rag-tag “field” we must take a serious look at that long list of claims and ask ourselves what few areas really deserve our attention now. At the very least, for the arts and education, we need to strip the number down to three or four major “claims,” turn those claims into action and regular research questions, and collect hard and soft data that will persuade our colleagues and the general public that learner and other outcomes in the presence of the arts are possible, probable, and pretty important.

Within the framework of teaching and learning, regardless of the particular approach or programs, we need answers to why and how the arts as education. At least in NY City we should be able to gather our forces and make headway and perhaps serve as a beacon for the rest of the country.

Who will stand and deliver on this important mission?

Jane Remer

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JANE REMER’S CLIFFNOTES We are at another rocky precipice in our history that threatens the survival of the arts in our social fabric and our school systems. The timing and magnitude of the challenges have prompted me to speak out about some of the most persistent issues in the arts education field during the last forty-plusyears. My credo is simple: The arts are a moral imperative. They are fundamental to the cognitive, affective, physical, and intellectual development of all our children and youth. They belong on a par with the 3 R’s, science, and social studies in all of our elementary and secondary schools. These schools will grow to treasure good quality instruction that develops curious, informed, resilient young citizens to participate fully in a democratic society that is in constant flux. I have chosen the title Cliff Notes for this forum. It serves as metaphor and double entendre: first, as short takes on long-standing and complicated issues, and second, as a verbal image of the perpetually perilous state of the arts as an essential part of general public education. I plan to focus on possible solutions and hope to stimulate thoughtful dialogue on-line or locally.

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Jane Remer has worked nationally for over forty years as an author, educator, researcher, foundation director and consultant. She was an Associate Director of the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund’s Arts in Education Program and has taught at Teachers College, Columbia University and New York University. Ms. Remer works directly in and with the public schools and cultural organizations, spending significant time on curriculum, instruction and collaborative action research with administrators, teachers , students and artists. She directs Capezio/Ballet Makers Dance Foundation, and her publications include Changing Schools Through the Arts and Beyond Enrichment: Building Arts Partnerships with Schools and Your Community. She is currently writing Beyond Survival: Reflections On The Challenge to the Arts As General Education. A graduate of Oberlin College, she attended Yale Law School and earned a masters in education from Yale Graduate School.