The Arts are imperative in education. Whether its music, drama, or painting, students should be encouraged to explore their creativity. They should not always be told what to learn or given a formula.The Arts empowers youth to express themselves and to be heard. Art gives students a voice.
I posted this article nearly a year ago on blogger spot. it received some attention and I think it is an important article. Here it is again. Rather long but very interesting especially when you have or teach gifted children.
Reprint of NYT Article February 2, 2010 Creative Commons license 2011
Op-Ed Contributor
By SUSAN ENGEL
New Marlborough, Mass.
THE Obama administration is planning some big changes to how we measure the success or failure of schools and how we apportion federal money based on those assessments. It’s great that the administration is trying to undertake reforms, but if we want to make sure all children learn, we will need to overhaul the curriculum itself. Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.
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A lovely story of random acts of kindness and art
Reprinted from NPR Creative Commons license
12:29 pm
November 30, 2011
by Robert Krulwich
He? She? It? Whoever it is, the Phantom Sculptor is suddenly back!
Book sculpture man standing outside
Enlarge Chris Scott/Flickr
As I recently reported, somebody has been dropping glorious little paper sculptures into libraries and museums all over Edinburgh, Scotland, and we’ve just heard (thank you, alert reader Paul Smith) that there are now three more.
And they will be the last.
Elaine Cimino Studios is offering the Born to Draw Drawing for Holidays and Special Occasions
Children’s Drawing Workshop on Dec. 20th
Building community through Arts projects is in
the 9th year of service to the Albuquerque, NM community!
Despite the doors being open for 9 years Off center Community Art Project was a surprise to me.
in the Afternoons and early evenings anyone can walk into OFFCenter and start making arts. Supplies are there for children and adults. Workshops are help in both arts and crafts
OFFCenter believes in artmaking as central to community building.
Shared creative expression leads to shared visions and the emergence of a compassionate collective life.
OFFCenter is a community artspace located in downtown Albuquerque. Home to a studio, gallery and sales shop, anyone in the community is welcome to come to OFFCenter to make and buy art.
Under the banner of high-tech progress, corporate lobbyists have rammed through legislation privatizing K-12 education across the country.
in New Mexico http://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/11%20Regular/final/SB0427.pdf
Shel Silverstein
Years from Now
Although I cannot see your face
As you flip these poems awhile,
Somewhere from some far-off place
I hear you laughing —and I smile.
Shel Silverstein
The dedication of Shel’s new book of poems published by Harper-Collins grabbed me. The simplicity and elegance of his line drawings makes drawing look so simple putting a pen to paper or a stylus to a tablet. What I found creative about looking at the Harper-Collins webpage was that it also included classroom activities. Activity guide was created by Sue Ornstein, a first-grade teacher in the Byram Hills School District in Armonk, New York.
ALEX TABARROK, a George Mason economist and blogger at Marginal Revolution, notes that though many more young Americans, about 50% more, now go to college than did 25 years ago, the number of students studying science, engineering, technology, or mathematics has not increased. So, Mr Tabarrok asks, “If students aren’t studying science, technology, engineering and math, what are they studying?” They are studying interesting and enjoyable fields, it turns out. Mr Tabarrok reports, with no little dread:
