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Once upon a time, most public schools had substantial arts education, with music and art most often recognized as the formal, official art forms. Dance and theater more often appeared as extracurricular activities, i.e., drama club. For many, many years, classroom teachers were expected to be able to teach the art forms. Primary school teachers were required to have a … [Read more...] about The Big Bang of Arts Education

I am thrilled to present my first guest blogger on Dewey21c: David Shookhoff. His biography appears at the bottom of this post, but I want to add my own quick thought about David: I can't think of any one person in the very large arts education community in New York City that has been more influential with more people than David Shookhoff. So, I thought it was quite fitting … [Read more...] about Guest Blogger–David Shookhoff, on Widening Perspective to Narrow the Gap

Sunday's New York Times had a very interesting article about Scarsdale High School dropping its Advanced Placement Courses, which many had complained were overly reliant on rote memorization, with something called Advanced Topics. In addition, a handful of select private schools have abolished their Advanced Placement Courses, and paid $40,000 a piece to have Ivy League … [Read more...] about What exactly is the equity issue all about?

Okay, it's back to Dewey21c, in the long shadow of the five-day online discussion about arts education. In the next couple of days, my first guest blogger will appear. I am lining others up as well...I wanted to get back on track with my regular blog by moving fairly far afield from the topics covered in the discussion.Years ago, there were two tracks in high school: academic … [Read more...] about Not Your Father’s Vo-Tech–The Future of High Schools

When I was working as an arts education consultant in the early 90s, during pretty difficult fiscal times for schools, principals were focused on integrating the arts across the curriculum. I know this, because during this period I was involved in focus groups and interviews with hundreds of principals and school district officials across the country.It was pretty simple: … [Read more...] about Economic Cycles and Arts Education