Why we need the Arts in the Schools

[tclements]

Some light reading for your enjoyment. Please feel free to discuss....

http://tonyclem.blogspot.com/" target="_blank

[Michael Bush]

Great piece. Thanks.

Unfortunately,nothing will get administrators' eyes off "the test" until No Child Left Behind, No Teacher Left Standing is either repealed or dies the death of a thousand cuts. It is an awful, terrible law that makes everything worse in education.

[Rick Denney]

Great piece. Thanks.

Unfortunately,nothing will get administrators' eyes off "the test" until No Child Left Behind, No Teacher Left Standing is either repealed or dies the death of a thousand cuts. It is an awful, terrible law that makes everything worse in education.

Goodness knows everything was tooling along just fine before it was passed.

Rick "thinking arts are part of a complete education, but wondering why band programs often treat band as if it was a competitive sport" Denney

[bort]

Too many parents suck at being parents. Then it's all downhill from there.

[knarfman]

Any union in which the union organization employees average salary is more then the people they represent is miss motivated.

If we elect or re elect democrats or republicans were screwed. They are similarly miss motivated !

I used to be miss motivated until I got married. Now it's more about the beer.

[tclements]

Without getting into a flame wars, PLEASE don't blame the teacher's union.

[TUBAD83]

Too many parents suck at being parents. Then it's all downhill from there.

I totally agree. When I was in grade school any subject grade below a "C" had to be explained to my mother; any "bad conduct" grade had to be explained to my dad when he got home (which was usually around 3am--that only happened once--he did not finish school and he insisted that all his children finished...period). Too many parents feel that teachers should raise their children for them and that attitude has to stop now.

My mother told us we were going to be in band "to keep us off the corner and out of trouble" It worked quite well--my closest and oldest friends are band mates from HS and college; band got me into college and the army band program. So I would argue that the fine arts in schools are just as important as having an athletic program and just as important as having a good academic core curriculum.

JJ

[SousaSaver]

Without getting into a flame wars, PLEASE don't blame the teacher's union.

Whatever - I don't care about a flame war. Without evaluating anything of substance or having a fundamental understanding of the system as a whole DO NOT RUSH TO BLAME UNIONS.

Guess what? Schools that are successful have teachers unions, so do schools who aren't successful. Just like any other profession, there are union leaders who are dishonest. This doesn't make unions bad as a whole. Unions are responsible for creating a middle class, giving us 5 day work weeks and keeping children from sewing tennis shoes.

All I ask is that critical thinking is applied before rushing to blame teachers unions.

..bloke is right about art and culture. Parents need to take a very active role in exposing their children to the arts. Education happens in schools but should continue at home. That is part of being a good parent. I listen to a good deal of Jazz and Classical music around my 19 month old daughter. Hopefully some of it will stick.

[SousaSaver]

Without getting into a flame wars, PLEASE don't blame the teacher's union.

Whatever - I don't care about a flame war. Without evaluating anything of substance or having a fundamental understanding of the system as a whole DO NOT RUSH TO BLAME UNIONS.

Guess what? Schools that are successful have teachers unions, so do schools who aren't successful. Just like any other profession, there are union leaders who are dishonest. This doesn't make unions bad as a whole. Unions are responsible for creating a middle class, giving us 5 day work weeks and keeping children from sewing tennis shoes.

All I ask is that critical thinking is applied before rushing to blame teachers unions.

..bloke is right about art and culture. Parents need to take a very active role in exposing their children to the arts. Education happens in schools but should continue at home. That is part of being a good parent. I listen to a good deal of Jazz and Classical music around my 19 month old daughter. Hopefully some of it will stick.

[GC]

Please keep in mind that there are NO effective teacher's unions in several states. In my home state, there is no collective bargaining for teachers. Salaries are set at the state level. Contracts are offered to teachers on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. There is a specific path to remove incompetent and inefficient teachers, and it happens fairly often. It merely takes an administrator with the guts and efficiency to document failings and file the appropriate paperwork. Most school systems in my state are interested in improvement, and regularly work to change the status quo and improve instruction. Yet my state remains near the bottom in most measures of educational accomplishment.

The reasons for lack of accomplishment are fairly obvious.

[SousaSaver]

Please keep in mind that there are NO effective teacher's unions in several states. In my home state, there is no collective bargaining for teachers. Salaries are set at the state level. Contracts are offered to teachers on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. There is a specific path to remove incompetent and inefficient teachers, and it happens fairly often. It merely takes an administrator with the guts and efficiency to document failings and file the appropriate paperwork. Most school systems in my state are interested in improvement, and regularly work to change the status quo and improve instruction. Yet my state remains near the bottom in most measures of educational accomplishment.

The reasons for lack of accomplishment are fairly obvious.

Oh, really? Then maybe you wouldn't mind revealing them. There are a myriad of factors that determine a child's educational success including, but not limited to:
Socio-economic factors
The education level of the parents
Cultural factors
ratio of students to teachers (classroom size)

The reasons above are the big ones, and usually there is an interplay between them.

And, how do you determine a teachers ability?

[Rick Denney]

If teachers are professionals whose work requires subtlety and judgment, then only subtlety and judgment should be used to evaluate them. Unfortunately, in all aspects of employment (not just for teachers) there seems to be a rush to distill the job down to objective and arbitrary standards of performance. When this occurs, the logical result is the loss of subtlety in judgment, not only in how teachers are evaluated by others, but in how they evaluate themselves.

As a manager, one thing I always hated to hear from an employee who demanded to be treated like a professional was the question: "I've been here x years. Why am I not a supervisor/manager/team lead/vice president yet?" A true professional focuses on the work. They are easy to identify--their performance reviews talk about what helps them do a better job versus what hinders them from doing a better job. They get promoted because rather than begging for raises, they accept better job offers, which for them are usually abundant.

It is indeed not a union thing, though unions can certainly accept their share of blame for trying to objectify teacher performance. The complaint I hear from real teachers is not so much that there are no objective standards of performance, but that their principals lack subtlety and judgment, with the result that principals do not support teachers when those teachers exercise subtlety and judgment.

Rather than blaming teachers for poor student performance, I blame students. They are the ones performing poorly. It's not that the standards are tougher than they used to be--quite the opposite. It's that there are no consequences for poor performance. Teachers get a little blame for that, but even if they did try to impose those consequences, they would find themselves under a truckload of manure, tilted onto them by principals and parents. Teachers should not be responsible for teaching good behavior--that is the job of parents. Teachers should be able to remove bad behavior so that it doesn't interfere with those not behaving badly. Sending the bad actor to the principal is one way to do so, but it doesn't work if he sends the student straight back to the classroom without having imposed appropriate consequences. So, it's the job of parents to teach good behavior, principals to enforce standards of behavior, and teachers to remove bad behavior. These days, we've got that all turned around.

Back to the topic at hand, though. If you look at classical education as gained by the most accomplished people of the past, they all received an extremely broad education. Sometimes it was formal, and sometimes they learned on their own. Sometimes, the education was delivered in a school, and often it was delivered by tutors or parents. In cases of some geniuses, they were removed from school because they were disruptive, but still succeeded under a more personal teaching scenario. In all cases, though, their classical education included enough about the world we live in to be equipped to be responsible citizens who are qualified to discharge their duty to vote. Does that include the arts? Of course it does--the arts influence how people think, and the history of how people think defines the culture. It's as important as languages, history, geography, math, and science. Even people who don't like or have an appreciation for music should know something about it, just as we expect those who have no aptitude for math to still demonstrate basic knowledge and skill in the subject. Parents fill their homes with art and music, and their kids either develop an appreciation for it or they don't. But either way, they ought to know something about it just so they can call themselves educated.

The purpose of teaching the arts is not to make artists--artists are sufficiently motivated to make themselves. The purpose of teaching the arts is so that people will know something about the culture in which they live, given that they will have a responsibility to choose the people who make the laws that govern it.

But when the purpose of schools devolves to teaching people how to do jobs and make money, or worse, organized group babysitting, all that breadth and perspective can no longer be justified. And we end up with a populace that lacks breadth and perspective, even among the "educated" classes.

Rick "tired of people demanding professional respect and then acting like hourly laborers" Denney

[GC]

@BRSousa: They're obvious for people who bother to look, as you obviously have done. You've named some of your own, so let's add a few: teachers buried under paperwork that wastes their time and has nothing to do with classroom effectiveness (mostly designed to make administrators look good and provide statistical data to keep higher-ups off their backs; this goes on at all levels); continuous budget cutting and shortfalls that lead to furloughs, less class time, fewer resources, outdated textbooks, etc.; constant changing of curricula and methods before teachers have time to get used to them and find ways to make them work; parents who abandon their duties and are uninvolved in their children's school lives; butt-ignorant legislators who claim to have the solutions to all of education's problems and a constant itch to interfere in matters that they know nothing about; administrators who will not do their jobs, who knuckle under immediately to every bit of parental or community pressure that comes their way; school boards that are power trips for their members, not opportunities for improvement and involvement of their school systems; the constant barrage of criticism that destroys teacher morale; and so on, and so on, and so on.

As for how one determines a teacher's ability, it's difficult to find an effective method when so many situations vary so much. Even so, a principal who keeps an eye on his faculty and stays out and about in the school and who knows what's going on around him is probably the most essential element. Reliance on judging teachers by standardized tests is not the answer, although tests can definitely be taken into account. Too much of teacher evaluation is based on short, inconsequential classroom observations, whether the teacher's lesson plans adequately reflect the fad of the year in instruction methodology (whether appropriate to their classes or not), and whether or not they give failing grades to too many or too few students. Complex situations are reduced to mere checklists, and anything that doesn't fit the list is ignored.

But there are some things that teachers should not do and characteristics that classrooms should not have, just as there are some things good teachers do that are easy to recognize. Teachers should make students work, not just throw away time every day; this doesn't mean that there should never be a moment free, but students time should not be wasted day after day. Teachers should be able to keep control in their classrooms; admittedly there are different comfort levels in different places, but an out-of-control classroom is not effective. Teachers should teach what they're hired to teach. Teachers should take care of their paperwork and professional duties. Teachers should not be too close to their students or too distant. Teachers should be able to maintain a professional relationship with students, parents, and colleagues. Teachers who have too big a problem with these things don't need to teach.

There is no perfect solution, no perfect situation, no perfect teacher. Two different administrators can look at the same teacher at the same time and have totally different opinions on whether that person is good or not, so there needs to be some objectivity in the evaluation process. Numbers (as in test scores) never tell all the story about how a teacher is doing in the classroom, and some subject areas are never tested, so there needs to be some subjectivity, too. I wish I knew the answer to the problem of how to evaluate teachers fairly and effectively. It still comes down to supervisors who are involved with their schools, who have a finger on the pulse of the school and the community, who understand and can respect diversity of personalities and effective approaches, who let their teachers teach instead of micromanaging them, and who act and evaluate in good faith. And it does happen a lot, though the failures draw far more attention than the successes.

And Rick's post above was, as usual, spot on.

[SousaSaver]

GC -

Perfect! I misunderstood your comment. I thought you were joining in the dogmatic/without any good reason union bashing. I apologize if my tone came across as nasty.

It irritates me very much when people immediately rush to blame any scape goat without reason or critical thought.

I am not an educator, but I have friends and family who teach in the public school system, so it bothers me an extra deal when people rush to blame teachers unions.

Thanks for clearing that up!

[Lew]

I think that Rick hit on the core of the argument that seems to me to be most relevant. We seem to have moved away from a broad based, "classical" education to a system where all that matters are very specific skills. While I appreciate Tony's experience that having band kept him interested in staying in school and therefore he did well in his other courses, I think that the need for arts in schools goes beyond that. I am not necessarily referring to the Scientific American article talking about music's impact on general learning abilities, although that is compelling too. It is more of a need for a broad based education that enables students to exercise their brains in a variety of ways and that focuses more on learning in general than on specific facts or skills. Teaching to a test tends to create short term results because it focuses on memorization rather than understanding. Teaching various arts helps create another opportunity for learning.

[GC]

Rarely have I seen teachers unions address issues of salaries. Far more often, I've seen teachers unions (other than some of these unions' to-me nefarious political objectives) protect teachers working conditions and legal rights.

This is a point that often gets lost in the debate. Unfortunately, the whole protection of legal rights and conditions never gets the publicity that the whole "the unions exist to protect teacher's jobs no matter how bad or lazy they are" baloney does.

[normrowe]

Not going to argue about anything. I will recommend you go to YouTube and check out the "video" (not really a video but an audio with a static title page) called "Why Music Matters" by Jack Stamp. 'nuf said.

[TUBAD83]

So let’s put this train back on the rails !
Why do we need arts in the schools ?

Totally agree with goodgigs--the first time I saw a live symphony orchestra performance (Houston Symphony) was on a school field trip--the first I saw an opera was also on a school field trip (the opera was Of Mice and Men--performed by Houston Grand Opera)--same thing with Houston Ballet. For most kids who would otherwise have no exposure at all, school is THE gateway to experience art and music on different levels. Its an opportunity for those of us who can't be athletes or brainiacs to learn something that will last a lifetime. It has for me so far!

JJ

[SousaSaver]

Although I feel badly for hijacking this thread, I love the discussion !

"I agree, bla bla bla bla bla" - Complete contradiction.
"I dissagree, bla bla bla bla bla" - complete concurrence.

And I'm the worst one. "In California it's all about the teachers union" Well.......
If it were that simple, even our stupid politicians would have figured it out by now.

I mentioned I didn't want a "Knee jerk reaction" but
the truth is I just didn't really want to discuss the origin my views.
I believed what my mother told me so many years ago and haven’t really questioned it.
More importantly, Tony - the O.P. didn't ask anybody about their views on the value of unionism.

So let’s put this train back on the rails !
Why do we need arts in the schools ?

PS Did anybody else notice that Tony didn't call Me names or insult my musicianship (like they do on You tube) ?
Thank you !

Complete contradiction/concurrence? What do you mean? NO ONE has called you names or insulted you in any way on this thread, so why even bring it up? The discussion goes where it goes. The situation with how we handle education is FASCINATING and has everything to do with the arts in the schools. As funding gets cut and cut the first thing out the door...the arts.

AND FOR THE RECORD - I have seen your Youtube videos and I think you're pretty damn good! I can't play that C. Someday I will...

[tclements]

I wrote my blog, just to sound off after I hear about more education cuts on the horizon. I offer my opinion and my own experience just to help justify my point. The link to the blog was posted here to generate an open and honest discussion of a subject that is near and dear to my heart. Hopefully, it will generate some action that might help all music educators everywhere.

I see this discussion (and the Tubenet as a whole) as a forum for people to exchange ideas, share experiences and even disagree. Lord knows I have been wrong more times than I've been right.

If you completely disagree with me, that is totally ok. These disagreements are when leads to learning and the opening of our minds. I am enjoying the discussion. Thank you for your input.