Music and Arts Education Advocacy Quote of the Day (April 18, 2011)
Virtually every creativity expert concurs – all children are creative, yet we often lose our capacity for creativity as we get older and diminish our creative activities. That brings us to today’s music and arts education advocacy quote of the day:
“Creativity is like a muscle. It gets stronger with use, and withers with inactivity. If we cut music and arts education funding, where will our children exercise?”
- Craig M. Cortello
No Child Left Behind, Square Pegs & Round Holes, & Rhode Island Education
I didn’t set out to become an education reform advocate, but somewhere in the process of writing a book about the benefits of music education, my research let me to funding of the arts, which led me to the consequences of No Child Left Behind, which led me to…
The video above addresses the potential consequences of a standardized testing program in Rhode Island, but it is a representation of an education epidemic that affects all of our children:
The escalation of the reliance on standardized testing as an assessment mechanism is hindering our ability to focus on the individuality of our students, and to help them identify and prepare for their unique calling and vocation.
It is said that everyone has the ability to perform at genius levels at “something.” Our job is to help students discover what their particular “something” is. I believe that in this world there are too many square pegs trying to fit into round holes due to fear or complacency, or because they were not given the proper tools of self-discovery. The greatest productivity gains that we as a society can achieve is by realigning those pegs.
In a related note, here’s a trailer for the movie Race To Nowhere, an indie film project about the current status of our education system, driven by a concerned parent.
Tavis Smiley Examines Gustavo Dudamel and the Role and State of Music Education
Tonight I watched the PBS Special Dudamel: Conducting a Life in which Tavis Smiley profiled the young, charismatic Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel, a product of the very successful Venezuelan program “El Sistema” which exposes impoverished children to classical music. The program looked at the broader issue of music education and its role in education reform.
It’s always great to hear confirmation of the concepts and opinions expressed in this forum regarding the benefits of music and music education. Here are a few of the notable excerpts (paraphrasing) from the discussion that I found noteworthy:
- “It’s not about creating musicians. It’s about creating the sensibilities of an artist that can be used in any vocation.” (Dudamel)
- “Sometimes we focus on physical poverty. There’s also a poverty of hope and of dreams. That’s what music involvement gives low-income children.” (Dudamel)
- “There are benefits of music education and of sports. In sports, however, a lot of kids sit on the bench. Music programs tend to be more inclusive and more participative.” (Berklee Fellow participating in the program designed to replicate El Sistema)
- “I feel like the doors of heaven have just opened up to me. I’ll let out all of my emotions in those drums.” (Young boy involved in a program in the U.S. modeled after the El Sistema program)
- “Kids are like a Polaroid. They just need exposure to develop. And they should be exposed to the best in order to develop into complete adults.” (Smiley)
- “It’s going to take something radical to reform education. Shouldn’t something so universally accepted as music be a part of that education reform equation.” (Educator)
Play on!
NOCCA Applies Artistic Lessons to Mainstream Education: Building Education from a Blank Canvas
What if you could build a school curriculum from the ground up with little or no bureaucratic limitations that hamper the effectiveness of many educational institutions? What if you were armed with the lessons learned from having successfully educated thousands of artists in a unique setting and could apply those lessons to a mainstream education program.
That’s exactly the challenge that NOCCA has been presented.
NOCCA refers to the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, an advanced program for young prodigies of music and the arts for high school-aged youths in New Orleans. Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr., Terence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton, Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet, and Wendell Pierce are some of NOCCA’s esteemed graduates. Students who are accepted attend their traditional school in the morning and attend NOCCA in the afternoon, where they receive focused instruction in an artistically centered environment. For years, the faculty and staff of NOCCA have felt as though they could be more effective if they had the students in this environment all day…and that’s just the opportunity that they will have starting in 2011-12.
Dr. Robbie McHardy has been tasked with developing a traditional education program for NOCCA, but she is putting the “NOCCA DNA” into the curriculum. I attended NOCCA’s open studio day in November and was extremely impressed by their approach and by the opportunity that they have to be a model for other institutions. Here are some of the lessons from NOCCA’s artistic programs that will be staples of their academics:
1. Critique: NOCCA has determined that allowing students to receive feedback from their peers accelerates the learning process
2. Beginners Working Closely With Practicing Professionals: NOCCA will seek teachers who are passionate about their areas of expertise and models for their students
3. Teaching Attentiveness & Awareness: The key to learning is being aware of the learning opportunities around you
4. Individuality: NOCCA will spend a great deal of time doing assessments of their students early in the program to determine their strengths and interests, so that learning can be customized for their needs
5. Almost No Homework: While students will have long days at school (approx. 8:30 – 6:30), the concept is that free time should be spent relaxing and practicing their arts
6. Performance-focused: Though the academic studio will be rigorous and all students will have the same expectations of achievement that any school would require, there’s definitely a sense that teaching with a singular obsession toward passing tests is a flawed approach to education
Applicants for NOCCA must pass an audition, and they anticipate roughly 150-200 applications for only 60 spots in the full-day academic program in year one.
I wish Dr. McHardy and the faculty and students great success in the year ahead. Exciting times for a wonderful institution!
Here’s an overview of the academic studio from Dr. McHardy:
Reassessing the Hierarchy of School Subjects: Sir Ken Robinson
In this video, Education and Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson discusses a topic we’ve visited here previously – the need to reassess the traditional categorizations of learning (subjects) and assessing their relative importance in the 21st century.
Race to Nowhere: Helping Kids Step off the Academic Treadmill
A fellow music education advocate recommended the film Race to Nowhere. I must say that I haven’t had the opportunity to see the film, but the trailer echoes many of the frustrations with the direction of education that we’ve discussed here previously. The film is being screened in selected markets and will be released this fall.
The film website also has links, resources, and tools to get behind this message. It’s also important to note that testimonials indicated that the movie leaves you with a sense of hope rather than just taking the easy route of bashing education and leaving the viewer frustrated.
While we generally discuss music education in this forum, many of the themes addressed in this documentary are questions we raise in that debate including:
- Personalized approach to students’ needs
- The importance of a well-rounded school experience (educated vs. informed students)
- The pressure to perform on standardized tests (schools, students, and teachers)
- Developing the ability to think rather than memorize
- Redefining success
As I’ve stated previously here in a letter to the Aspen’s Institute on No Child Left Behind, “Our ability to meet performance metrics is meaningless if those metrics are not a true measure of the needs of our students.” Any thoughts from those who may have seen this film would be appreciated.
Startling statistics
A letter from the Director Vicki Abeles
Frustrated Teachers, Test-Obsessed Schools
Diane Ravitch is the research professor of education at NYU and the author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (2010). In “Just Say No to the Race to the Top” she discusses how although standardized state tests are considered inadequate and a poor representation of the effectiveness of an educational institution (even acknowledged by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan), educators are held hostage by test-based methods in terms of allocation of dollars, teacher evaluations, and classroom priorities.
It’s interesting that there are several dozen comments to this very articulate blog post, mostly from educators who share her frustrations. Schools have been demoralized by these standards, and studies indicate that the greatest prerequisites of effective education are a motivated teacher and a motivated learner.
If teachers, parents, and students are fed up with the obsession on standardized tests, who’s steering the ship?
Link to “Just Say No to Race to the Top” by Diane Ravitch
The Creativity/Memorization Ratio in Education & Assessment of the Arts
I discussed in a previous post a report by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) regarding the effect of the No Child Left Behind Act on the classroom that discussed the shift in education resources toward subjects that are assessed via standardized tests. CEP also provided recommendations based on their findings, one of which was to encourage the states to “Consider including measures of knowledge and skills in art and music among the multiple measures used for NCLB accountability,” based on their research that indicates “What gets tested gets taught.”
That brings up a touchy subject that gets debated in the academic world – How do you implement tests for the arts that truly capture artistic aptitude and competence? By definition the arts are about creativity, and standardization can discourage creativity. How would Charlie Parker or Pablo Picasso have performed on a standardized arts test? My fear is that standardized testing for the arts would drive the move toward memorization of facts rather than creative application, which is essentially what the arts are all about and the greatest benefit of arts in our schools (see item #5 of the 9 Common Lessons of Music Education that Translate into Success).
These thoughts led me to the emphasis on memorization in education. As a parent of a 12 year old, I can say that education today is similar to my education experience in that regard. Let me preface my remarks by saying that I believe that unless we find a way to transfer artificial intelligence to human beings in real time, memorization will always be a part of the education experience. But Social Studies, Science, and Religion (in private schools) are almost exclusively an exercise in memorization at the elementary school level. Math and grammar are of course a hybrid of memorization and application.
My point is that as the access to information becomes closer and closer to instantaneous with mobile devices that can access the web, the importance of memorization is diminished. Our schools are doing a relatively good job of addressing the importance of technology and familiarizing our children with computers and the web, from what I can gather. They are not, however, addressing the “creativity/memorization ratio” in terms of time spent on these skills in the classroom relative to their importance in the 21st century.
Any thoughts?
The Aspen Institute’s Commission on No Child Left Behind
The well-intended implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act has resulted in increased emphasis on standardized testing in our schools and fewer resources available for subjects other than reading and math (including music and the arts). The Aspen Institute’s Commission on No Child Left Behind is holding a hearing in New Orleans today to discuss education standards, data, reform. etc.
My comments submitted for the record are noted below. You can provide written comments for the public record via e-mail. Click here for more info.
April 5, 2010
The Aspen Institute’s Commission on No Child Left Behind
Tulane University
Lavin Bernick Center, Kendall Cram Room (#213)
New Orleans, LA
April 5th, 2010
1:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. CST
Working Together for Student Success: Accountability, Data, and High Standards
COMMENTOR NAME: Craig M. Cortello
AFFILIATION: Music Education Advocacy author and speaker. Author of Everything We Needed to Know About Business, We Learned Playing Music (La Dolce Vita Publishing, 2009). A 20 year veteran of engineering, consulting, and manufacturing industries and a 30 year guitarist/pianist/songwriter. Contributing music writer to Where Y’at magazine in New Orleans and AllAboutJazz.com. Business articles have appeared in Convention Forum, Industrial Engineer, and Executive IdeaLink magazines.
RE: Music Education & No Child Left Behind
From the perspective of the arts community, No Child Left Behind was seen as a significant victory, in the sense that it recognized “Arts” as a core academic subject. As is often the case, there seems to be a disconnect between what has been written into law and what is in fact reality.
According to a series of reports by the Center on Education Policy that tracks the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (which became law in 2002) entitled From the Capital to the Classroom, 62 percent of elementary school districts reported increasing time for English and/or math since the 2001-02 school year by an average increase of 42 percent. At the same time, 44 percent of elementary school districts reported cutting time from one or more other subjects including science, social studies, art and music, physical education, lunch, and recess by an average of about 30 minutes per day.
“What gets tested gets taught,” said Jack Jennings, CEP’s president and CEO. “Because so much is riding on reading and math, included on state tests, many schools have cut back time on other important areas, which means that some students are not receiving a broad curriculum.”
The report also notes that these changes are more prevalent in districts that are home to struggling schools. One recommendation from the report is to “include measures of knowledge and skills in art and music as one of the multiple measures used for NCLB accountability.”
Over a period of 2 years, I conducted interviews with 32 CEOs and business leaders who played music as a child or adolescent and view that experience as a defining one in preparing them for success. The compilation of those interviews and profiles became the primary content of my book entitled Everything We Needed to Know About Business, We Learned Playing Music, published in September of 2009, a copy of which I have submitted for the record.
One of the questions that I asked of all of the research participants was this, “Based on your experience with music, if a school principal or administrator came to you and asked for 2 or 3 talking points that would be compelling in justifying funding to keep a music education program intact, what would you say.”
Consistently, the answer to that question was some variation of the following:
“Music kept me engaged in the school experience where I might have become disenchanted with the experience otherwise.”
“I kept up with my studies to fulfill an obligation so that I could play in the marching band.”
“I didn’t feel part of the mainstream, but music became my identity.”
“I knew I had talent, but I don’t respond well to traditional assessment methods. Music validated that belief for me.”
And therein lies the irony. In short, music education IS a no child left behind program. It keeps children that don’t necessarily shine according to traditional metrics of student performance involved in school.
Sometimes tutoring and remedial course offerings are not enough to keep children on the bus. We need to find a motivating reason for them to want to come along for the ride.
It does seem to me that the very well-intended accountability motives that have driven the demand for standardized testing have led us to a more narrow approach to education. These changes come in an era when the workforce is demanding more well-rounded, diversified individuals possessing artistic sensitivities, as expressed very articulately by authors such as Daniel Pink, Sir Ken Robinson, Ned Herrmann, and John Kao.
Creativity is just one of 9 common lessons that we identified from music education that translate into business success, FROM THE BAND ROOM TO THE BOARDROOM so to speak. One common theme in most all research on the topic of creativity is the concept that creativity is like a muscle. The capacity for creative thought will either strengthen with use or wither with inactivity. We must engage in creative activities in order to develop that capacity.
My concern – Where will our children have the opportunity to strengthen their “creativity muscles” without music and arts education in our schools?
In closing, I would like to simply say that until we recognize that music and the arts are as essential as reading and math in preparing our students for the 21st century workplace, any perceived improvements through the implementation of accountability measures are hollow victories. Our ability to meet performance metrics is meaningless if those metrics are not a true measure of the needs of our students.
James Carlini is an international business infrastructure and technology consultant and a former distinguished teaching award recipient at Northwestern University’s School of Continuing Education. He advocates a movement away from the 3 R’s of education that were appropriate for the industrial age toward what he refers to as the F-A-C-T approach toward education – that is, a focus on Flexibility, Adaptability, Creativity, and Technology as the necessary cornerstones of a post-information age education. And music and the arts should play an integral role in that migration.
I ask you to reverse this disturbing trend of diminishing resources for music and the arts.
Musically inspired,
LA DOLCE VITA ENTERPRISES, LLC
Craig M. Cortello
The “Business Musician”
President
P.O. Box 746
Metairie, LA 70004-0746
Cell: (504) 481-6105
ccortello@ldv-enterprises.com
The 3 R’s – An Archaic Approach to Education?
Interesting article by James Carlini regarding the outdated nature of the “3 R’s in education. The author suggests a F-A-C-T approach instead for the new, post information-age economy (Flexibility, Adaptability, Creativity, and Technology). The article is entitled The Re-Education of Education.
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