Ten Lesson The Arts Teach Us

While trying out students on instruments this week at a school, we came upon this list of lessons. This sums it up doesn't it?

"Ten Lessons the Arts Teach"
by Elliot Eisner


Here are the "Ten Lessons the Arts Teach" compiled by Elliot Eisner, one of the country's leading art educators.

The arts teach children to make good judgements about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts it is judgment rather than rules that prevail

The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.

The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.

The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving, purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstances and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.

The arts make vivid the fact that words do not, in their literal form or number, exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.

The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. The arts traffic in subtlety.

The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which images become real.

The arts help children to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.

The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.

The arts' important position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.

Elliot Eisner is a professor in Education and Art at Stanford University in California. This article was published in the Arts in Education Council of BC Newsletter. It was provided by Helen Daniels, Executive Director of the ARC Arts Council and a member of the Board of the Arts in Education Council of BC.

Advocacy in Washington DC

Last month, I had the chance to travel to Washington, DC with other members of the music products industry to remind our federal legislators of the importance of music education. This is an especially important time to do that as we continue to wait for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (commonly known as No Child Left Behind).

The week was made possible by NAMM, the International Music Products Association, which Progressive Music is a member of. We spent a day learning about current important issues relating to music education advocacy and traveled to the US Department of Education to see students perform for DoEd staffers as well as Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. Duncan re-affirmed a commitment to music education. You can see some highlights on the DoEd website - http://www.ed.gov/blog/2010/05/john-lennon-educational-tour-bus-visits-ed/



The next day, our team stormed Capitol Hill. We meet with members of Congress and their staffers reminding them of the importance of a complete education that includes music. It's amazing but our government is run by a bunch of 20-somethings. The staff members of all of the members of Congress that we met with were all very young but also very knowledgeable. They are the ones who do the research and write the legislation that govern our country.

I walked away from the meetings feeling very good about what we were there to do. No one argues the importance of music education and all pledge to help to keep is a part of the core curriculum of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. I also walked away feeling that I learned so much. I have the wonderful opportunity to meet so many wonderful NAMM members as well as had a chance to experience our government at work.

But - we must all remember that music education advocacy must happen at more places than the federal level. It's vital that we all are aware of the music education situation in our own communities. The decisions on what classes are offered and how they are offered are made at the local level. So - always remember to stay informed of your local situation and be a player in the decision making process by making your voice be heard.

Below is a photo of me with recording artist, Taylor Dayne. She joined us to add her voice to ours as we advocated for music education.