Last May, the LA Times published a great article summarizing a report that studied the value of arts education.  A lot to be digested here.  The results of the study can be found at www.pcah.gov website.  It is important to note a few voices of sobriety in all of the excitement.  The decline in the availability of arts classes is due to a wide variety of factors.  In most cases, the availability of art courses at the high school  is predicated on enrollments.  Students have a broader array of options than ever before in our nation’s history.  With the push for Advanced Placement courses and courses in STEM, we have to recognize that that students are going to have to make tough choices.  Another voice that needs to be considered is Ellen Winner’s.  Winner points out that the research linking participation in the arts and achievement is dubious.  Winner also considers the impact of arts education in fostering creativity in children.  In some of her current research, as echoed in other emerging researching, that creativity comes from a willingness to take risks and then to learn from failures.  As cited in a the previously linked Ed Week article, “The “stretch and explore” habit in art class looks similar to experimentation in science classes. Rather than simply telling a student how to perform a task, Ms. Winner said, the teacher might ask students “to try new things, take risks, and not be afraid of mistakes, but instead to capitalize on their mistakes.”  While these two attributes are not unique to art classes, it is clear that students and teacher are more comfortable dealing with risk and failure in art than in content areas such as science.  So many of the experiments taught in science classes are built with one right answer in mind, even though this is contrary to real science.  We’ve come to expect art projects developing flaws or taking on lives of their own. READ MORE »