In the News

Schools must find the means to support cultural enrichment

Op-Ed piece from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, April 8, 2004

On March 29, educators, artists, and cultural organizations gathered at the Worcester Ecotarium for the Massachusetts Cultural Council's first annual Creative Schools Conference. Governor Mitt Romney used the occasion to declare March 29 "Creative Schools Day." Coming at the end of National Arts Education month, this gathering provides a perfect opportunity to reaffirm the critical role that arts and culture play in providing Massachusetts children with a complete education.

Music, literature, painting and the myriad other expressions of human creativity enrich our lives by deepening our understanding of ourselves and the world in which we live. Children of all cultural and economic backgrounds deserve to have art and culture as part of their daily lives.

The arts also possess tremendous practical educational value. Recent research has demonstrated that the arts are essential to developing critical and perceptive thinking. Playing and listening to music, for example, enhances children's ability to reason, make decisions, and solve problems, as educator Eric Jensen argues in his book Music with the Brain in Mind. Students in arts-focused schools usually have higher than average test scores than students enrolled in other schools from their district or state. Other studies have shown that students who study the arts are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement and three times more likely to be elected to leadership positions by their peers.

These facts are not just true of children from wealthy families. In fact, a recent analysis of U.S. Department of Education data on 25,000 students demonstrated that high arts participation makes a more significant difference to students from low-income backgrounds than for high-income students, according to the Arts Education Partnership. That study also found clear evidence that sustained involvement in particular art forms-music and theater-are highly correlated with success in mathematics and reading. The arts can be particularly effective in reaching students at risk of failing by connecting their experiences to the world outside.

Since 2000, the MCC has supported the Worcester Center for Crafts' Teen Apprentice Program, which has helped Worcester High School students better transition into adulthood by offering them intensive apprenticeships with master craftspeople.

And, of course, the arts offer an engaging window into history. This idea is at the center of a unique series of programs the Massachusetts Cultural Council supports in the Worcester Public Schools. Entitled, "Illuminating the Past: Using the Performing Arts to Develop Stronger Readers and Writers," the program is centered on children from kindergarten through grade six at the Worcester Arts Magnet School and the Grafton Street Elementary School.

The programs use dance, music, and theatre to help children sharpen their reading and writing skills, and introduced them to ideas and facts about history that they would never get in a regular classroom setting. "Illuminating the Past" also engages parents by showing them how to use the rich cultural resources of Worcester and its neighbor communities to help their children continue to learn and grow outside of school.

The MCC also supports the Worcester Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative (WAHEC), a coalition of school administrators, teachers, and parents working with educators and directors from 18 cultural and scientific institutions, and corporations. WAHEC provides a forum for the city's cultural community to engage in the education of its children and support the schools' work to advance systemic reform. These wonderful projects, and dozens of others like it across Massachusetts, support the goals of Education Reform.

Despite all of this, educators are under significant pressure to cut back on arts education. The state's continuing fiscal challenges have meant that state aid to public schools remains tight, and school administrators often have to use available resources just to keep staff paid and buildings heated. The requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Law and the state's MCAS exam mean that there is less time in the school day to devote to the arts, humanities, and sciences.

At Mechanics Hall on March 6, state Rep. John Rogers (D-Norwood) inspired a gathering of Local Cultural Council leaders with a passionate argument for the importance of the arts in our communities. He cited the economic benefits, as well as the intrinsic benefits of the arts, and he underscored state government's responsibility to guarantee access to the arts for all Massachusetts citizens.

He ended his speech with the following quote from John Adams: "I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."

We must find ways to support art and culture in our schools. They are not extra "frills" to be discarded when economic times are tough. They are essential to the development of thoughtful, creative, and well-rounded citizens.

That should be the "basic" goal of public education.

Mary Kelley

Mary Kelley is Executive Director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency that supports excellence, access, education, and diversity in the arts, humanities and interpretive sciences.

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