{"id":703,"date":"2010-09-17T17:47:46","date_gmt":"2010-09-17T21:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=703"},"modified":"2010-09-17T21:51:21","modified_gmt":"2010-09-18T01:51:21","slug":"stop-blindly-defending-arts-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=703","title":{"rendered":"Stop blindly defending arts education"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not against people defending arts education.\u00a0 I just don\u2019t like seeing people doing it blindly.<\/p>\n

I read this article from a link I saw on my twitter feed: Arts Education and Civilization: This Isn\u2019t Child\u2019s Play<\/a><\/p>\n

[UPDATE:<\/strong> Please also check out the comments! \u00a0I throw around the word “snob” a lot below, but my intent is not to personally call the author of this article a snob; it is in response to the actual ideas. \u00a0Just in case you’re mad at me already.] <\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, Elizabeth King, the article\u2019s author, isn\u2019t being blind.\u00a0 It\u2019s people who support arts education and, in turn, support articles like these without reading them, or without reading them closely enough, just because the conclusion agrees with theirs.<\/p>\n

About the article: I don\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n

The article\u2019s author seems to suggest that arts education should be funded in public-funded schools because…<\/p>\n

Because why?<\/p>\n

Just because.<\/p>\n

Because, you know, smart people think arts are good.\u00a0 It\u2019s just the \u201csmart\u201d thing to think.\u00a0 So we all just defend it because we like it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll state my own opinion at the bottom of this blog post, but first I want to go over why this particular article annoys me.<\/p>\n

The article starts off with two quotes, which I\u2019ll reproduce below.\u00a0 The first quote is from <\/em>Doris Sommer, Director of the Cultural Agents Initiative at Harvard University<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Some people mistake the arts as only a vehicle for expression. That\u2019s a very limited view. Art is a vehicle for exploration, learning, and trying things out. If people are serious about reducing violence and educating youth to become productive citizens and more satisfied in their own lives, supporting and expanding art is a major opportunity for developing intellectual capacity. All of the rhetoric about empowerment gets immediately grounded when a youth is working on an art project. This person is authoring something that didn\u2019t exist before.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m guessing King quotes this because of its general support for arts education.\u00a0 Of course.\u00a0 But it\u2019s a vague quote.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t really say much beyond \u201cyouth that is creating art is good.\u201d\u00a0 But why is it good?\u00a0 Well, it reduces violence.\u00a0 Evidence of this?\u00a0 Oh, it just does.\u00a0 What else?\u00a0 It educates youth to become productive citizens (whatever those are) and more satisfied in their own lives.\u00a0 Again, evidence of this?\u00a0 Oh, who needs evidence, these seem like truisms!\u00a0 How could they be wrong?<\/p>\n

Firstly, maybe their \u201cart\u201d is rapping about having gangsta wars and shooting each other.\u00a0 Maybe they want to make violent films.\u00a0 If expanding art education reduces crime simply because youth won\u2019t have as much time to do crime in the first place, you could equally support sports, religion, couch-potatoness, and prison sentences for pre-crimes for the same reason.\u00a0 Secondly, I\u2019d like to say there are plenty of artists who aren\u2019t satisfied with their own lives.\u00a0 They\u2019re miserable.\u00a0 But this is probably beside the point, because \u201csatisfaction\u201d is not something that can be objectively measured.<\/p>\n

The second quote is from Tim Smith from the Baltimore Sun:<\/p>\n

\u2026 [Glen] Beck singled out cities with budget crises where they\u2019re cutting back on police, but not slashing the funding for such things as libraries, museums and, in Baltimore, the Lyric Opera House \u2014 a.k.a. the \u201cstupid, snotty opera house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beck claimed that $750,000 was in the budget for that historic venue in our fair city, while \u201ccops are on the chopping block. This is like my wife saying we are broke, we have to cut down our expenses on food. I turn around and say, OK, when you grocery shop, no more meats, organics, milk \u2014 we\u2019re cutting that out. Just get Mountain Dew and Cheetos \u2026 How about we get the rich who never pay their fair share to buy their stupid snotty opera house? Would you cut the opera house or the cops? \u2026 What does your gut tell you? That everybody involved in this is moron?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I suppose this quote supports art, and that\u2019s why King posted it.\u00a0 But to me this seems to be more about \u201cart vs. cops\u201d and their funding.\u00a0 So cities are not cutting back on funding for an opera house?\u00a0 Why are they funding opera houses in the first place?<\/p>\n

At least, that\u2019s the message I get from this little quote.\u00a0 Things are probably somewhat more complicated (read the full article).\u00a0 But I do think the government can stay completely out of the arts and both the arts and the government will be just fine.\u00a0 Using public funds to fund only a specific type of art is not fair to people who don\u2019t enjoy that kind of art.\u00a0 To support such a fund is to be stupid and snotty.<\/p>\n

OK, to the article…<\/p>\n

King writes:<\/p>\n

Most high art…<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Woah!\u00a0 Hold it, hold it!\u00a0 There goes my snobbish rhetoric alarm.\u00a0 \u201cHigh\u201d art?\u00a0 Some art is \u201clow\u201d and some art is \u201chigh\u201d?\u00a0 Already we must have completely different definitions of what \u201cart\u201d is.\u00a0 Tsk, tsk!<\/p>\n

OK, King goes on to try to define art:<\/p>\n

Most high art\u2014visual art, music, literature, dance, theater\u2014intends to examine a group of people, comment on society, recount experience, investigate social norms, and challenge them, highlight them, or reinforce them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Woah!\u00a0 More snob rhetoric!\u00a0 \u201cIntends\u201d?\u00a0 You now think you know the intentions of dead artists?\u00a0 Another big tsk tsk!\u00a0 I disagree with this definition.\u00a0 It might be true for some art, but I don\u2019t think we can state a definition so objectively and self-contained like that.\u00a0 Maybe King didn\u2019t mean to do that, but that\u2019s what she wrote.\u00a0 You think Mozart\u2019s 40th symphony had anything in particular to say about society?<\/p>\n

King writes:<\/p>\n

High art strives for better\u2014better execution, better message. It looks for continuity between what has come before and its own sense of direction; it\u2019s aware of its own longevity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ha!\u00a0 You wish!\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t that make the subject easy to understand!\u00a0 But King is over-generalizing immensely, and the rhetoric is still snobbish (\u201chigh\u201d and \u201cbetter\u201d).<\/p>\n

After snobbishly attempting to define art, King then writes about a survey from the National Endowment of the Arts (which, ideally, does not need to exist) about how participation in snob, er, \u201chigh\u201d art is declining:<\/p>\n

The 2008 survey results are, at a glance, disappointing. As reported in Arts Participation 2008, a summary brochure of the survey\u2019s findings, a smaller segment of the adult population either attended arts performances or visited art museums or galleries than in any prior survey.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why are the results disappointing?\u00a0 Why is attending arts performances or visiting art museums and galleries automatically<\/em> good?\u00a0 People should like and pay for this stuff, otherwise they are dumb, uncultured, uneducated fools?<\/p>\n

The quote from the NEA goes on to try to guess at why there\u2019s a decline, and guesses that the decline in arts education has something to do with it.<\/p>\n

So… we should support arts education so attendance at NEA-surveyed places goes up?\u00a0 Again, why would this be automatically good?<\/p>\n

Finally, King attempts to answer this question:<\/p>\n

When we let go of cultural traditions and inquisition, the after-effects are more than a momentary disruption\u2014 it\u2019s not just some blip on the screen in our society. When we consistently replace cultural exploration with pop culture consumption we ultimately create a hole in our connection with each other across society<\/em>. Ignoring art means breaking our bonds with each other. Truly, abandoning the arts puts us at risk for increased violence in our communities. Ultimately, if our culture is one of the defining elements of our civilization, if it propels us forward and connects the work we do now with that of the past and, even more importantly, that of the future, then to destroy that continuity and meaningful connection actually puts our society and civilization at risk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whew, that\u2019s a lot.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go over this paragraph more finely.<\/p>\n

King writes:<\/p>\n

When we consistently replace cultural exploration with pop culture consumption we ultimately create a hole in our connection with each other across society<\/em>. Ignoring art means breaking our bonds with each other.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0 The problem here is that King has snobbishly separated art into an elite \u201chigh\u201d art and the lowly \u201cpop culture.\u201d\u00a0 Just because attendance at symphonies and art galleries goes down doesn\u2019t mean that art isn\u2019t being consumed, it\u2019s just not the kind of art you think is \u201chigh\u201d enough.\u00a0 That \u201chigh\u201d art is not some invisible important cultural glue keeping us all functioning properly, while \u201clow\u201d art does nothing.\u00a0 How do we bond with each other through \u201chigh\u201d art?\u00a0 What sort of \u201cbonds\u201d?\u00a0 That\u2019s not<\/em> a rhetorical question; answer it!<\/p>\n

I, of course, completely disagree.\u00a0 Art is something that comes natural to humans.\u00a0 We will always involve ourselves in art, whether it\u2019s taught in schools or not.\u00a0 There is not some higher subset of art that keeps us all bonded nicely.<\/p>\n

King writes:<\/p>\n

Truly, abandoning the arts puts us at risk for increased violence in our communities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Evidence?\u00a0 No?\u00a0 It\u2019s just a truism?<\/p>\n

And, again, not going to art galleries is not \u201cabandoning the arts\u201d!\u00a0 If what you call \u201cpop culture\u201d is \u201chigh art\u201d to someone else, then you have nothing to worry about, do you?<\/p>\n

Ultimately, if our culture is one of the defining elements of our civilization…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Uh… OK, culture is a defining element of civilization.\u00a0 But culture emerges naturally.\u00a0 People don\u2019t sit down and consciously design a culture.\u00a0 \u201cWell, we\u2019re a great civilization, we just don\u2019t have much culture…\u201d No.<\/p>\n

…if it propels us forward and connects the work we do now with that of the past…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We move forward in time because we have to.\u00a0 Cultural changes do not go backwards and forwards (unless you mean in a moral sense), they just change.\u00a0 Artistic trends, likewise, change; they do not \u201cprogress.\u201d\u00a0 And I have no idea what King means by \u201cconnects.\u201d\u00a0 That word is too vague.\u00a0 Makes grammatical sense, seems fine if you\u2019re reading quickly, but if you stop and think about what it means… what does it mean?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I could guess, maybe that\u2019s what King wants readers to do, but I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 The word is too imprecise.<\/p>\n

…to destroy that continuity and meaningful connection actually puts our society and civilization at risk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So ultimately this is all about a vague sense of \u201cconnection\u201d?\u00a0 This isn\u2019t good enough for me.<\/p>\n

King then gets patriotic:<\/p>\n

The American experiment is still new. The work we\u2019re doing to perpetuate a democracy is still, in terms of global history, extremely fresh. By abandoning the arts we are abandoning ourselves. By offering exceedingly paltry arts education we are abandoning our students now and future generations. We are abandoning the first Americans who risked their necks so we could be here. Finally, we are abandoning our potential for continuity, the creative economy, and, most fundamentally, the luxury of relative safety that we enjoy on a daily basis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Again, King makes the snobbish assumption that art museum attendance (and such) and the cutting of art education programs are signs of the public \u201cabandoning the arts\u201d when in reality they\u2019re just abandoning a certain definition of it.\u00a0 King claims we are somehow thus abandoning \u201cthe first Americans who risked their necks so we could be here.\u201d\u00a0 What in the world do they have to do with it?\u00a0 Saying that you\u2019re \u201cabandoning your parents who took their time to raise you\u201d makes equal sense.<\/p>\n

(Oh, and I guess art education isn\u2019t as important for non-Americans?)<\/p>\n

King then lists some other vague ideas we\u2019re abandoning.\u00a0 \u201cOur potential for continuity\u201d … what does that mean?\u00a0 \u201cThe creative economy\u201d … what does that mean?\u00a0 And \u201cthe luxury of relative safety.\u201d\u00a0 Absolute safety would be more of a luxury.\u00a0 But… what the?\u00a0 How does safety have anything to do with this?\u00a0 Oh, are you going back to the idea that crime rates go down with more arts education?<\/p>\n

King writes:<\/p>\n

The discussion about Arts Ed is heated, but it\u2019s tough to talk about when so few Americans actually engage in the arts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, yeah, isn\u2019t that your problem to begin with?\u00a0 That\u2019s like saying \u201cit\u2019s hard to talk about why math books should be more popular when so few Americans actually read math books.\u201d<\/p>\n

King then makes a commitment that her blog, or website, will start talking to artists…<\/p>\n

The vast majority of the artists we\u2019re going to talk to are going to be full time, established artists\u2013people you should know about.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just had to get one last moment of rhetorical snobbery in there?\u00a0 \u201cPeople you should know about\u201d?\u00a0 Gee, thanks!<\/p>\n

My own opinion<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hold the rare position of being against our whole system of public-funded education in general.\u00a0 I think there are worse things to worry about, like the actual reasons behind why we even have to question whether or not to fund education about the arts.\u00a0 What other things are we teaching and why are we teaching them?\u00a0 What\u2019s the point of education in the first place?\u00a0 To be ranked #1 in the world and dominate it?\u00a0 To stay busy?\u00a0 To just learn as much as we can just in case we might<\/em> use some of it someday?<\/p>\n

If a work of art isn\u2019t influential enough by itself to pervade the public\u2019s consciousness on its own merit, then we don\u2019t have to artificially extend its influence by forcing<\/em> students to be conscious of it.\u00a0 Works of art that were once considered \u201cgreat\u201d can be forgotten, and that is OK.\u00a0 If you think that is not OK, if you think that is sad, then you are a snob.\u00a0 Being conscious of works of art that used to be popular and influential does not make you \u201csmarter\u201d or \u201cbetter.\u201d\u00a0 Just because something is helpful or interesting to you does not mean we should, as a society, force everyone to know it.<\/p>\n

Having said all that…<\/strong><\/p>\n

In some ways, I\u2019m playing devil\u2019s advocate here, because I\u2019d rather align myself with people like Elizabeth King who support arts in education rather than these stupid school officials who just want more compulsive testing.\u00a0 But in some other ways, I\u2019m very annoyed, because so many people don\u2019t seem to have objective reasons for supporting this stuff; they just do it because they like the arts themselves.\u00a0 And if that\u2019s all that\u2019s guiding them, they\u2019re really not helping much.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupport the arts in education!\u00a0 A way to shove art chosen by other people down the public\u2019s throat for its own good!\u201d<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t need that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not against people defending arts education.\u00a0 I just don\u2019t like seeing people doing it blindly. I read this article from a link I saw on my twitter feed: Arts Education and Civilization: This Isn\u2019t Child\u2019s Play [UPDATE: Please also check out the comments! \u00a0I throw around the word “snob” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[53],"tags":[275,274,78],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gI4B-bl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":704,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions\/704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}