Responding to your comment requires more than a tweet. I don’t know if we’re in disagreement. It depends a lot on definition and on course of action. We may disagree about what creativity is, what proficiency is and what we need to do about it. Or we may not. But here goes…
Robert Pondiscio tweeted this.
He may not mean to argue against an art curriculum for all either. But if he is meaning to… I respectfully disagree.
Putting creative development and literacy in conflict with one another is a false dichotomy. There is no conflict. Both are essential parts of being a fully realized human being.
Also, although you need a base … you can be visually literate and still not meet the NAEP proficiency bar. You can play an instrument and read music and still not meet the NAEP proficiency bar. (Side bar: NAEP “proficiency”… which is less rigorous than the proficiency demanded by the NYS 3-8 ELA… is well above grade level. That’s another topic, but it bears repeating that aspirational standards should not be sold as the measure of literacy.)
But as to the value of creativity… I am a middle school teacher of writing. It has been my experience that my students become better writers and readers when they care about the creative potential of what they’re writing. That doesn’t mean that they only write about what they care about. (That would be an abdication of my responsibility to broaden their horizons) But, it does mean that they learn through writing that everything they write has creative potential. (Your most intellectually curious students already know this.) They write more and are more interested in multiple revisions when what they are doing is a matter of personal investment. They learn to do more than communicate effectively. They learn to take care in their use of the written word. I have seen students develop this skill in non fiction feature journalism written for magazines we’ve created and in persuasive writing written for debates we’ve held. I have seen it in poetry and short story.. written for our literary magazine. Personally, I prefer creative non fiction as a far superior tool for literacy development than literacy separate from creative development.
But, don’t for a minute think I mean only creative literacy matters. I have had the good fortune to be the daughter of an art teacher. I was also fortunate to be among those who would have been allowed to do art, but my sister was a little behind. And in this brave new world, she could have been among those who were denied the right to take and make art so that she could get additional literacy practice for state testing. She ended up going to art school. She continues to make art but is also a very successful director of development today. She was never illiterate, but when it became clear that she needed to ramp up her skills, that she needed to be a more persuasive writer, she taught herself what she didn’t have. She discovered, through her years of committed art practice, that skills can be learned and practice is everything.
So, I subscribe to Randy Pausch’s view.
“[T]he … thing about football is we send our kids out to play football or soccer or swimming or whatever it is… [w]e actually don’t want our kids to learn football. I mean, yeah, it’s really nice that I have a wonderful three-point stance and that I know how to do a chop block and all this kind of stuff. But we send our kids out to learn much more important things. Teamwork, sportsmanship, perseverance, etcetera… And these kinds of head fake learning are absolutely important… keep your eye out for them because they’re everywhere.” (Last Lecture)
You don’t give students access to the arts so they will become famous artists or writers or musicians. You give them access for the thing itself and because you learn lots of other important things through it. You develop aesthetic appreciation. You get access to and participation in the fruits of your culture (article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which I also subscribe). You learn that you can create something that you care about deeply. My students become obsessed with their creations… become far more available for the work, for the endurance and for the precision that it takes to create and get better at creating. It is an object lesson for everything else they ever do. And, it is a source of richness in their lives because they can connect and stay connected to themselves as creators and participators. Other things they might learn that help them when they are out there in the world? It comes in handy to have a broad background. Nothing says a ceiling you don’t even know is there when you’re culturally illiterate in the company of those who aren’t.
So, I do think that these are class issues. A middle class or upper class parent is not putting up with removing the arts from their child’s curriculum. They take that background with them and it is a signal to their peers in the adult world. A poor parent may turn to the test data and think that their child is getting everything that wealthier children are getting.. And they couldn’t be more wrong.
Caveat: I would be in complete opposition to anyone arguing that literacy development is unnecessary. It all matters. It isn’t fine to be an artist who can’t read. But, it also isn’t fine to be a good test taker who never learned to value anything but their test performance. I am unequivocally opposed to the practice of giving some children extra test prep classes in place of art, music, tech, dance, theater. It is not to the benefit of the child or the adult that they will become to have their education cauterized and imbalanced. They need to have a full program reaching and growing them in every way possible.