Arts Advocacy Links

Ideas for Advocacy 
"The arts are not so much a result of inspiration and innate talent as they are a person's capacity for creative thinking and imagining, problem solving, creative judgement and a host of other mental processes. The arts represent forms of cognition every bit as potent as the verbal and logical/mathematical forms of cognition that have been the traditional focus of public education (Cooper-Solomon, 1995 The arts are essential. School Arts, 94, (6), p. 29.).

Teachers have known for many years that young children often understand more than they are able to verbalise and their understanding can be observed in behaviour other than verbal. The arts use their own unique symbol system of visual, aural, verbal and non-verbal forms of communication. When children participate in activities in the arts, they are involved in using both non-verbal and verbal forms of communication.
..."Humans invented each of the arts as a fundamental way to represent aspects of reality; to try to make sense out of the world, manage life better, and share these perceptions with others" (Fowler, 1994) because a single form of representation is simply not enough.

While the arts have been grouped together in a single key learning area, it must be remembered that each art form is unique and what is experiences and learned in one art form cannot be duplicated by another. Children should have access to all the arts and experience dance, drama, music, visual arts and literary arts programs that present a developmental sequence in line with the particular discipline’s knowledge base. To merely "dabble" in one or two of the arts is akin to "dabbling" in language or numeracy.

Arts education must be a strong force which fosters a widespread and general creative life as a counterbalance to the forces of mass production and mass consumption in a specialist materialistic society. The voracious demands of the latter will progressively displace the former unless the importance of the arts in education is strongly and widely asserted (Commonwealth of Australia, 1995, p.7 Arts Education. Report by the Senate Environment, Recreation, Communications and the Arts References Committee.)."

From: Developing children's full potential: Why the arts are important

Dr Neryl Jeanneret, Faculty of Education, Univeristy of Newcastle 

http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/learning/k_6/arts/kids_potential.php

References

• Commonwealth of Australia, (1995). Arts Education. Report by the Senate Environment, Recreation, Communications and the Arts References Committee.
• Cooper-Solomon, D. (1995). The arts are essential. School Arts, 94, (6), p. 29.
• Dreyfuss, R. (1996) Speech at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards February 29, 1996.
• Eisner, E. (1982). Cognition and Curriculum: a basis for deciding what to teach. Now York: Longman.
• Fowler, C. (1994). Strong Arts , Strong Schools. Educational Leadership, 52, (3), p.4.
• Gardner, H. (1985). Frames of Mind: the theory of multiple intelligences, New York: Basic Books.
• Jeanneret, N. (1995). Developing preservice primary (elementary) teachers' confidence to teach music through a music fundamentals course. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Sydney.
• Perrin, S. (1994). Education in the arts is an education for life. Phi Delta Kappan, 75 (6), p. 452
• Reid, L.A. (1986). "Art and the arts", Assessment in the arts, Ross, M. (Ed.), Oxford: Permagon Press.
• Reimer, B. (1989). A Philosophy of Music Education, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. (second edition.)

 
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