The K12 Geek

We’ve all heard the call for Art for Art’s sake, have we not?  Well, we need to rethink that a bit for today’s student.

No longer should we think of art as “divorced from any didactic, moral, or utilitarian function.”  Our students need art. They need music. We are short-changing our kids if we cut back on these expressive outlets.

In A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink describes us as now in the conceptual age. We have so many different choices and styles of products to purchase (as mundane as the ‘toilet brush’) - we must now strive to be the designers of these choices – not the producers of the products.

It’s time to make our kids into creative designers, story-tellers,  authors – we need to help them become the forward thinkers and conceptualizers.  A foundation in art and music must be a large part of that education.

 Less testing and more creating should be our cry. And while we are at it, why not use technology tools – digital cameras, video, and software — to integrate the experience?

Here’s the inspiration behind this post, and a bit more comprehensive look from Education Week: Why Arts Education Matters.