One of the things which impressed me about Barack Obama, which has been all but ignored by the media, is his support of arts and arts education in the United States.
"I don’t want our teachers teaching to "The Test" – I want our children learning art, and music, and poetry, and science, and history, and civics. I want them to have a full, well-rounded education. And I want our teachers to get in touch with the desire to teach them."
-- Obama 2/16/08
Obama's campaign position focuses on nine points: Reinvesting in arts education, expanding public grants for arts education, publicly championing arts education, creating an artist corps, increasing funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, promoting cultural diplomacy, providing health care for artists and ensuring tax fairness for artists. As far as I’ve been able to tell, the Clinton campaign has focused very little on the importance of the arts in education, which in my opinion, sets Obama apart from his Democratic rival.
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It’s apparent that Barack’s position on arts education is counter to that of the Bush Administration. In his 2009 budget request to Congress, President Bush has announced a proposed $16.3 million cut for the NEA from $144.7 million to $128.4 million. Perhaps drawing a distinction between Obama & Bush (and Clinton's silence) on arts education, could be a factor in tomorrow’s Ohio primary. The Acron Beacon Journal recently stated:
To put this in perspective, after three years of minimal, but incremental, funding growth, this new proposal utterly erases all progress.
Moreover, the 2009 budget seeks a rescission of $200 million in already-approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a trusted community resource of quality programs and educational services.
But perhaps worst of all, Bush asks nothing — not one thin dime — for the U.S. Department of Education's Arts in Education program in the 2009 budget, compared with the $35.3 million enacted
appropriations in the 2008 budget. This brings to an end his perfect record of attempting to eliminate altogether funding for this valuable program, which includes funding for model arts programs and collaborations with schools, teacher professional development and arts programs for at-risk youth.
Many would ask, what is the relevance of the arts in education?
Fran Rauscher, an assistant professor of cognitive development at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh (Title 1 programs struggle for funding, 2003). Since 1992, she’s been doing a series of studies examining how music training affects development of spatial temporal abilities. She states: "It’s a very abstract type of reasoning about how objects relate to each other over space and time," (Title 1 programs struggle for funding, 2003). "It’s the ability to understand symbolic relationships, and to form a mental image." (Title 1 programs struggle for funding, 2003). These are the subjects that many children do poorly in.
Phil Psilos wrote an article entitled "The Impact of Arts Education on Workforce Preparation". In this article, he documents research examining the impact of art education on workforce preparation. He stated that
"The impact of arts education on workforce preparation has confirmed that programs incorporating the arts can be educational, developmentally rich, and cost-effective ways of providing students with the skills needed for productive participation on today’s economy. Art education has been shown to help students develop basic, higher-order thinking, and affective skills needed for workplace success." (Psilos, 2003).
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''Art is science made clear'' — French artist/playwright Jean Cocteau
''Art is meant to disturb, science reassures'' — French artist and inventor (with Pablo Picasso) of Cubism, Georges Braque
''Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it'' — German poet, playwright and theatrical reformer Berthold Brecht
''Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses — especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else'' — Leonardo da Vinci