Strong Arts, Strong Schools: The Promising Potential and Shortsighted Disregard of the Arts in American Schooling

Rating:
Summary: A Handbook for War
Review: The No Child Left Behind Act lists the arts as a core subject, but many school districts are cutting arts programs in an effort to deal with dwindling budgets and curricular time that is increasingly being devoted to math and reading-the subjects school districts must begin assessing yearly in grades 3-8 beginning in 2005-2006.
Charles Fowler has written an excellent book to combat this
trend. He organizes the book into four parts: Conditions, Justification, Curriculum and Reform. His concise chapters deal with expected issues- the arts as forms of intelligence;and the noted correlation with academic achievement, including detailed charts of SAT scores that show strong evidence that students involved in arts are academically stronger than those not involved. However he goes a step beyond, showing educators examples of schools that integrate the arts in all subjects and the effect this has on attendance, attitude, parent involvement and achievement.
He calls on music educators to step out of the traditional box of band, orchestra and choir, which typically
enroll about 15-20% of a school population, and reach out to all students in a school through cross-curricular and culturally based lessons. He challenges arts educators to include creativity in their daily lessons, rather than just teach towards performance. With many districts getting on the vocational education band wagon, he lists the many opportunities for employment in the arts and the economic impact
of the arts in our whole society. This book is invaluable for any arts educator or administrator that finds themselves in a position of defending or promoting their work in the public schools.