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The Des Moines Register has published a guest column by IAAE Executive Director Diane Franken. The column, published on Monday, November 15, 2008, was slightly abbreviated. Here is the complete text:
Arts Education Key to Preparing Creative Thinkers
In the Register's ongoing series about world-class schools, it has given too-scant attention to the essential place of arts education in preparing students for a global society and workplace.
An initial question asked experts to identify the knowledge and skills necessary in education to be globally competitive. Science, math, language arts and other subjects are important for our students, but they are no longer enough. Who says so? More than arts educators.
To cite just a few examples:
* A study by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills identifies "the arts as a core subject for a student's complete education to prepare them for the 21st century."
The study lists as 21st-century skills those skills that have always infused quality arts programs: creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, adaptability, initiative, social, productivity, responsibility and global awareness. The partnership includes such companies as Apple, CBS, Dell and Ford Motor Co., along with the American Association of School Librarians and McGraw-Hill Education. Recently, Gov. Chet Culver signed Iowa on as a partnership state, and the Iowa Department of Education has begun to suggest the inclusion of some of its mentioned skills.
* Another study, by the Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce from the National Center on Education and the Economy, concluded: "The skills so inherent in the arts of creativity and innovation are essential for our students in the 21st century." The commission consists mostly of business leaders, with some education leaders. Its report states: "Countries will depend on a deep vein of creative people... The best employers the world over will be looking for the most competent, most creative and most innovative people on the face of the Earth and will be willing to pay them top dollar for their services. This will be true not just for the top professionals and managers, but up and down the length and breadth of the work force."
* Sir Ken Robinson, international lecturer, author and business consultant on creativity, states: "America's educational system continues to stress the skills needed in the past, ignoring the real needs of today's workforce. The biggest mistake is educating people to be become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Creativity is central to the practice of science and business and more. ... The heart of this argument is that knowledge can be generated in many ways other than in words and numbers. ... We need an education that values different modes of intelligence."
* Richard Florida, social economist and author of three books on creativity's newly recognized effects on our economy, says that the "creative sector" makes up 35 percent to 40 percent of the U.S. work force, and more in big cities. "For the first time in history, the further development of the economy literally turns on the further development of our combined human creative capabilities," he contends.
* In a recent survey of American employers and public school superintendents, "overwhelmingly, both groups agreed that creativity is increasingly important in U.S. workplaces and that arts training and communication studies are crucial to developing creativity. Yet ... the findings indicate that such training and studies are only provided on an elective basis."
Lastly, how do parents and other taxpayers feel? A recent national survey of voters found that the majority was dissatisfied "with public education's narrow focus on the 'so-called' basics and believes developing the imagination is a critical, but missing ingredient for student's success in the 21st century."
In summary, it's critical to achieve a better balance between the arts and other subjects to give our students the competitive edge they need in a global economy. Achieving this will not be easy, but the benefits of success for our students are substantial and the price of failure is high.
It's time for education to meet the needs of our students today instead of yesterday. Arts education has never been more essential.
DIANE E. FRANKEN of Davenport is executive director of the Iowa Alliance for Arts Education, whose mission is to support and advance quality arts-education programs across Iowa. Contact: iaaedf@mchsi.com
The above text in Word Format.
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