I support Michelle Obama's stance on arts education.

[JDPriestly]

Speaking at the Pittsburgh Creative & Performing Arts School, Michelle Obama gave an 11-minute address about the importance of the arts in our schools. I appreciated her expressing the conviction that the arts aren’t somehow an “extra” part of our nation’s life, but should be an essential part of it.
Mrs. Obama's sentiments couldn't have come at a more appropriate time. With state budgets under attack, we in the arts are bracing for a familiar song: whether or not to fund arts in the schools. When times get tough, the arts programs are always among the first to be eliminated from the curriculum.
Cutting arts funding is a short-sighted move whose consequences contribute to the deepening cultural disconnect occurring in our society.
Specifically, a generation raised without awareness of the arts, without the opportunity to experience the arts themselves by making music, making drawings, making poems, is a disenfranchised one. Art is the essence of who we are and our society is strengthened whenever young people are given the opportunity to directly share this legacy.
. . . .
I am, of course, an advocate for classical music, whose twelve hundred year unbroken continuum allows us to intensely experience what it meant to be alive in 1200 or 1600 or 1900. I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to experience those world views. But, this can only be done by giving young people the keys that open up the whole world of music to them. These were the keys my parents and very importantly my teachers in public schools offered me.
The problem is that we, as a society, have abandoned the responsibility of exposing our young people to the very language of music. Today, the amount of music instruction in both elementary and secondary classrooms is decreasing; many recent reports highlight the disparity between public rhetoric about the value of arts education and the stark decline in curricular offerings across the nation – a phenomenon exacerbated by the growing pool of classroom teachers whose own education and teacher preparation programs included minimal offerings in the arts.


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-tilson-thomas/michelle-obama-and-i-agre_b_321605.html

[obliviously]

1. I would have to agree Art is number 1 on my list of priorities right now

[JDPriestly]

3. My music education prepared me to learn languages and understand mathematics

in addition to providing me great joy in life.

I learned to play the violin and also sang in choirs at school. Learning the violin trains your ear and learning to sing trains your ability to control the sounds that come out of your mouth (not just words but also inflections and rhythms). A good ear and the ability to mimic different sounds are the abilities you need to learn languages easily. And the linear movement of music helps a person understand math concepts. Voila. Music and art are important not just for themselves but for the abilities they develop in a young person -- and in such a delightful way.

[obliviously]

5. I wished I would have tended to bussiness and learned piano

I love listening to piano!

[eridani]

2. Our local Air America station has a great public announcement on music

Part of a Sound Education. Nice reminder.

[immoderate]

4. Don't forget shops.

There are too many people out there who can't change a light bulb.

The opportunity for students to measure, fit, fabricate, construct, and finish real objects gives them a chance to practice what they supposedly learn in their "academic" classes.

--imm

[JDPriestly]

6. Absolutely.

There is nothing in the world more fun than making nice things with your hands. Back when I was a girl we were required to take home economics -- cooking and sewing. I still love to sew, knit, etc. It's so relaxing.

[calimary]

7. I had a chance to interview the late Renaissance Woman Shari Lewis - remember her?

She was the ventriloquist with Lamb Chop, Charley Horse, and a bunch of other sock puppets, GREAT kids show producer/writer/host - musician, singer, AND orchestra conductor! And educator. She talked about the value of music education in schools - how essential it was for the development of a child's brain. She said music education helps enable the brain to grasp mathematics and languages and all kinds of complex concepts. She believed you didn't have thorough and complete development of the young brain without it. She said she spent a lot of time and energy advocating for arts programs to be maintained in schools, if indeed not increased.