Art Makes All Things Better: Tolerance.org

Guest artists in Tucson, AZ work with refugee students in an ESL classroom to use photography to explore the concept of "home."

Kimi Eisele talks not only about the success of the program, but also about the challenges of funding--particularly in the face of No Child Left Behind which has shifted focus away from the arts in order to keep up with standards. Eisele poses- "The irony is that arts programming may be exactly what such schools most need to improve student achievement."

Reminds me of Augusto Boal's description of Peru's 1973 government campaign for literacy - Operacion Alfabetizacion Integral - to wipe out illiteracy within the country over four years. The variety of languages has often posed hurdles to addressing this problem - but ALFIN took the approach that "the illiterate are not people who are unable to express themselves; they are simply people unable to express themselves in a particular language" (Theatre of the Oppressed, 2006, 121).

The educators at ALFIN used photography with the literacy education participants-- asking questions in the language Spanish and seeking answers in the language of photography. Participants would be asked Where do you live? in Spanish and asked to respond using photography.

Boal summarizes one man's photographic answer:

"One day a man, in answer to the same question, took a picture of a child's face. Of couse everyone thought that the man had made a mistake and repeated the question to him: 'You didn't understand; what we want is that you show us where you live...

"Here is my answer. Here is where I live."

"But it's a child..."

"Look at his face: there is blood on it. This child, as all the others who live here, have their lives threatened by the rats that infest the whole bank of the river Rimac....A few days ago, when you asked me where I lived, the rats had come while the child was sleeping and had eaten part of his nose. This is why there's so much blood on his face. Look at the picture; it is my answer. I live in a place where things like this still happen." (Theatre of the Oppressed, 2007, 124)

NYC Schools Don't Meet Arts Standards

Less than 5% of NYC schools are meeting state arts standards.

Elementary students are supposed to be exposed to dance, music, theatre, and visual arts education each year. City schools are not required to report their arts programming to the state, though the announced in July that schools will receive a report card on the arts.

Wondering if a lack of certified teachers in the arts--particularly dance and theatre--contributes to this problem. I think we should have alternative routes or programs for teaching artists and artists to become teachers. As far as I know, organizations like Teach for America and NYC Teaching Fellows don't recruit teachers to the arts or don't define the arts as a high-need subject area or eligible subject area. Why not?

Yet, the Shubert Teaching Fellows program within the NYC Department of Education recruits certified teachers within the system (who are not certified in theater) to become theater teachers. The site claims "there is a need for licensed theater teachers." Why not broaden this to outside artists and show a commitment to recruiting highly qualified individuals to arts education?

Not sure the arts will ever receive its due focus while we continue to focus on banking models of education and positivist approaches to learning. How can we make a shift?

$125,000 Salaries for Teachers

A new charter school, The Equity Project (TEP), to open in Washington Heights this fall is offering $125,000 salaries fo its teachers. NY Times reports.

Teachers will take on extra responsibilities with regard to attendance, discipline, and after-school programming. The principal's salary will be $90,000. There will only be two social workers employed by the school.

I can't disagree about upping the teacher salary. I think it will be really interesting to see the ramifications of this and whether this is a sustainable model for a school.

A couple "challenges" that stood out to me:

• In addition to the "core" subject areas (not that I agree that they are the "cores"), the school will offer Latin as its only language and Music as the only arts course. Visual arts will be integrated into ESL and Social Studies. Not sure I agree with this. Though it looks like some after school programming could include exposure to other "electives."
• The school is only accepting teacher applicants who score in the 90th percentile on the GRE, GMAT, or LSAT. What is this saying?
• I don't see much about the educational philosophy on the website. What are the pedagogical beliefs? Yes, teacher quality is important. But how do you define that? High standardized test scores?

The Responsibility of Love

Just discovered this quote today on Villanova University's "Augustine Day-by-Day."

"The responsibility of love is that we bear one another's burdens."

We're often afraid to boil things down to words like "love" or "compassion." We say it isn't seem "rational" or "smart" to make decisions to "sacrifice" even small things for others--like paying more taxes to maintain social programming or making the choice to really integrate public schools.

What isn't rational is to say "It's not my problem." Responsibility isn't about self-entitlement or what I deserve--it is about love, and the fact that our liberation is bound to that of others.

Performing the World Conference

The All Stars Project's Performing the World Conference is set to take place on October, 2-5 2008. They are accepting proposals for this year's theme:"Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow," focusing on history and process--both of participants' personal histories and that of performance in the world.

The All Stars Project is an organization that focuses on youth development and community performance. I've done some work with them in the past and think they have some good things going on. The conference will be co-sponsored by The East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy.

Being Cool In the Cafeteria

Some students in San Francisco schools choose not to take advantage of their subsidized lunches. Why? The stigma that is attached with it. "Only 37 percent of eligible high school students citywide take advantage of the subsidized meal program." See more here.

Art IS

Art IS Education is an arts integration program taking place in Alameda County, California that is focusing on quality integrated arts education. Looks like they are going to have an interesting conference surrounding their integration, research, and praxis. I particularly like the use of student Artist Statements that tie students' own viewpoints into the research. I think it's a step in the right direction in terms of integrating the student voice into curriculum planning, research, and assessment.

Just a side note, the name "Art IS Education" reminds me of something Jacques D’Amboise, founder of the National Dance Institute once said:

“There’s an awful word they say: arts in education. As if they’re
injecting it. Arts is education. Arts is learning—discovery about
ourselves and our emotions.”

Yes, Arts IS.

Play Time

NYT has some interesting insight into the importance of play time. While schools and classrooms are taking "play" out of the picture, some scientists are aiming to prove the developmental importance of creative play.

One possible hypothesis is that play can open up rehearsals for future situations and problem solving activities:

The individual most likely to prevail is the one who believes in possibilities — an optimist, a creative thinker, a person who has a sense of power and control. Imaginative play, even when it involves mucking around in the phantasmagoria,
creates such a person. ‘‘The adaptive advantage has often gone to those who entured upon their possibility with cries of exultant commitment,’’ Sutton-Smith wrote. ‘‘What is adaptive about play, therefore, may be not only the skills that are a part of it but also the willful belief in acting out one’s own capacity for the future.’’

Doesn't sound too far from theatre practitioner Augusto Boal's notion that theatre is a rehearsal for life.

Check out The National Instutute for Play for more information.

Let Us Work Together

"If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."
--Aboriginal Activits Group, Queensland, 1970s

Great quote. Liberation isn't about working for people or working with people. It's about working within communities. Helping is superficial--helping happens every so often, here and there, when it is convenient.

Questions about Personal Success

It seems like personal achievement is the ultimate success and happiness. The idea that we can transform ourselves from point A (lesser) to point B (greater). The idea that the inner-city child who attends on of the worst schools can, in some cases, beat the odds.

Is that what it's about? Celebrating the "successes" of those who beat the odds? Celebrating the heroic qualities of extraordinary individuals who somehow make it past the systemic obstacles of everyday life? Certainly, this is good news. But what about the masses?

Furthermore...is the idea of success this: to transform from the oppressed to the oppressor? To replace discomfort and hardship with comfort and a never-look-back attitude?

What is success? What does it mean when you acheive it alone? Knowing that by some stroke of luck you "made it out." What about those who are left behind? And what does that mean for my own responsibility?

It bothers me when I hear some young person say, "I didn't go to college to just: work at McDonald's, be a janitor, be a waitress." Like there's actually some sort of level playing field out there. But you know what? For most of the college-educated, there were shortcuts--no need to be extraordinary, to be heroes. Yet, we still think we're entitled. I guess it's more safe.

Embracing Uncertainty

"Education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty." --Mark Twain

What happens when we take away our neat and tidy outcomes-based systems with which we declare success and failure, point our fingers, and create heroes or villains? It all becomes a lot more complicated. When we reevaluate our philosophical roots in what it means to be, to live, to learn? Education gets personal. Words like humanity, love, transformation, and meaning try to weave their way into a world bogged down by positivist blinders and "neutral" agendas.

We need to challenge our policymakers, administrations, teachers, students, and selves to embrace the uncertainty that comes with real meaning-making education. An education of discomfort, critical thinking, challenges, and even upheaval. But one that is accompanied by awakenings and images of a future that challenges the status quo and social norms.

How do we create not only an education system, but also a society that embraces the spectrum of opportunities for individuals and communities--that no longer subtly oppresses the marginalized? I'm not sure. But I know that the answer is not to pretend we know how. We must ask questions. We must start from scratch, if that's what needs to happen. We must embrace the uncertainty of the human aspect of education--the emotions, transformations, and experiences that make learning real. The part of learning that relies not just on strict standards and curricula, but also problem-posing, relationships, frustrations, and injustice.