Appreciating the Role of the Arts in Education

When students in public schools are asked what their favorite subjects are, the first picks for so many are art, music, theater arts, and creative writing. When school board members facing a financial crisis in spending are asked what their favorite subjects are for cutting out of the curriculum, their first picks are art, music, theater arts, and creative writing.

A recent ABC news report states that “31 percent of American students are dropping out or failing to graduate in the nation's largest 100 public school districts.” The same report said that it is estimated that about 2,500 students drop out of U.S. high schools every day. Among the nation's 50 largest districts... three graduate fewer than 40%: Detroit (21.7%), Baltimore (38.5%) and New York City (38.9%). In June of 2006, USA Today reported that when asked why they are dropping out of school, students often reply that it is because their classes are boring.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, students drop out of school for the following reasons:

* Dislike of school;
* Low academic achievement;
* Retention at grade level;
* A sense that teachers and administrators do not care about students; and
* Inability to feel comfortable in a large, depersonalized school setting (1999).

Despite research that reveals the invaluable benefits of creative learning, arts programs continue to be considered irrelevant and are first to be cut in most school districts. Thus, the students who are not scholastically talented, but excel in subjects where special talents in the arts can be developed, are left behind. Another problem emerges when fewer potential teachers specialize in the arts because of the fear of being unemployed when cuts are made.

As one who was a member of the school band where I attended high school, I can vouch for the skills, knowledge and behaviors that I developed in the band that assisted me in becoming a successful adult. I learned to follow directions, to improve my skill as a musician by disciplined practice, to cooperate with others in playing a composition, to march in intricate formations while playing an instrument, to develop friendships with fellow band members, to experience the pleasure and excitement of traveling to distant cities for participation in band festivals, and to feel pride in our band, our school spirit, and the sense of belonging to a community. The thought of dropping out of school never would have occurred to me. Had I dropped out of school, I would not have been able to remain in the band.

I was in a school play where I developed my language skills, reading skills, writing skills, verbal skills, and interpersonal skills. I felt the pleasure in performing in front of an audience. I developed emotionally and socially so that I was prepared to deal with school, life, and other people. Students in the creative drama and theater classes are offered an opportunity to develop their creativity in these areas. Many of the students in arts classes end up improving their overall academic performance and transform their learning environments. Finally, educational research has concluded that creative learning and arts programs have a positive impact on students’ cognitive development, confidence, and motivation.

The arts are more than just a feel-good exercise. They nurture us intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually as they help us grow and feel a sense of community. Used in conjunction with core academic subjects, they can not only foster learning, they can provide alternate avenues for education for students with learning challenges. And so many of those are the students who are dropping out of high school before graduation.

High school should be more than just a place where students have information pumped into them and then on cue are expected to regurgitate that information on multiple-choice tests. So many important aspects of a student’s education cannot be reduced to measurement by filling in circles on a multiple-choice test. High school should be a place where students develop their knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivation, confidence, interpersonal relations, and perhaps most important of all , the feeling of pleasure and accomplishment that comes from being involved in a creative endeavor.

Anger Has No Eyes

(I wrote this poem almost a year ago. All the anger that exists in our world today made me think of it once again.)

I got the idea for this poem a couple of days ago from our local newspaper. Under “Words to Live By,” there was this ancient Hindu saying : “Anger has no eyes.” That line inspired me to expand it into a poem.

In this poem, I have tried not only to capture the essence of anger as a negative human trait but also to distill the emotions and the dynamics involved in its expression. Although anger has many different sources and manifestations, I am limiting the poem to the general negative meaning of anger to which I believe the Hindu sage was referring.

Anger has no eyes
Says the ancient sage.
It boils in a cauldron of hate
In the bitter juices
Of unremitting rage.

Anger has no eyes
To view the outer world.
It sees only its own fears
And its remembered tears
Amid a seething swirl.

Anger has no ears
To hear the voice of Love.
It has a clenched fist
In an iron glove,
And strikes at the torrid air.

Anger has an acrid tongue
To launch a bitter slur
That slashes and burns
Digs up and churns
A past that is but a blur.

Anger feels the fiery frenzy
Of tempers heated with hate.
That erupt in a rage
And let the demons uncage
In the grip of a spiteful spate.

Anger has the smell
Of a stagnant well
That fills the air
With the stench of despair
And opens the gates of hell.

Over Here

When President Woodrow Wilson led the United States into entering the conflict in Europe in 1917, most Americans weren’t entirely certain that it was advisable to send our troops “over there.” Our nation had been neutral for three years while the war dragged on in Europe. After war was declared, a whole new wave of patriotic songs emerged, including George M. Cohan’s 1917 version of “Over There.” The lyrics were designed to engender patriotic fervor and they succeeded in doing so. The chorus to the song is as follows:

Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there -
That the Yanks are coming,
The Yanks are coming,
The drums rum-tumming
Ev'rywhere.
So prepare, say a pray'r,
Send the word, send the word to beware.
We'll be over, we're coming over,
And we won't come back till it's over
Over there.

Anti-war songs, many of which had been extremely popular in previous years, vanished from the music racks. They were replaced by countless pro-enlistment and anti-German song sheets, some of which were accomplished works of popular art, but many of which were raw propaganda. These songs framed the war as a straightforward battle for liberty, as in the song "Liberty Bell, It's Time to Ring Again," and focused on the willingness of American soldiers to fight, as in "We're on Our Way to France.” Dozens of songs were published ridiculing the German monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm II, with titles such as "We're Going to Hang the Kaiser." The new songs were sung in musical theaters, in movie houses, in churches, and in homes across the United States, but they were also popular among troops in Europe. Back at home, the advocates of the war had won the battle of popular opinion, with the help of American songwriters and publishers, and brought into being a new commitment to U.S. intervention in world affairs.

Now we are engaged in another conflict in Iraq, which has dragged on for four years. This time we are saying that we are not fighting for our own freedom but for the freedom of the Iraqis. In the First World War, President Wilson said America was fighting to “make the world safe for democracy.” Now we state that we are fighting in Iraq to make Iraq safe for democracy.

Why don’t we change the lyrics from “Over There” to “Over Here”? Why are we always going over there to fight for our freedoms when we are in more danger of losing our liberties over here than we are over there? Perhaps we need to send the word over there that the Yanks are coming back over here even though it’s not over over there. We need to send the word to some powerful congressional-military-industrial interests in our own nation to beware as we bring our troops home and build up our nation’s strength from within instead of squandering our resources over there.

That is not to say that there are not legitimate reasons for sending our troops to some places “over there.” The plot on the World Trade Center and other targets was hatched in Afghanistan, where al Qaeda had training camps and Osama bin Laden was located. The invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq, however, based on a lie, was not justified. Now that we know Iraq was not involved with September 11, it is time to bring our troops home and let the various factions in Iraq sort out the kind of government they will get.

This is an expression of my personal opinion. I welcome all comments, both pro and con, regarding this post. Please discuss ideas, not personalities.

Guess Who’s Sorry Now?

If a person does something wrong and then apologizes for it, do you forgive him or her the first time? The second time? The third time? The times after that? Perhaps you have been informed by the media that Don Imus of the “Imus in the Morning” show has had his program suspended for two weeks starting next Monday, April 16th. He went on the Rev. Al Sharpton's radio show on April 9th and said he was sorry for his most recent comments on the Imus show. He had earlier apologized to his listeners and viewers last Friday for the same remarks.

Don Imus’ most recent brouhaha occurred on April 4th when he referred to the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “Nappy-headed hos.” They had just lost to Tennessee the previous night in the women’s final basketball tournament. The problem here occurs with the use of the word “nappy” and the word “hos.” First, let us look up the meaning and history of the word “nappy” in Dictionary.com: nappy (adj.) "downy," 1499, from nap (n.). Meaning "fuzzy, kinky," used in colloquial or derogatory ref. to the hair of black people, is from 1950. Next, we will check out the meaning of “Ho” in the Urban Dictionary:

Urban Dictionary definition of “Ho” Prostitute, Whore, Hooker, Tramp, Slut

A whore. A woman who uses her body, or gives the impression that her mark can be intimate with her, for material gain or to boost her own ego.

Ho : (n) A prostitute. Shorthand for the word whore. This word originated from prostitutes who trick at hotels. In some cases people refer to them as sluts but what makes it different is that hoes get paid for what they do. (pl n) Hoes. The correct spelling for the plural of “Ho” is “Hos“ or “hoes“.

At this point, one should be informed that the Rutgers University women's basketball team is comprised of eight African-American and two white players. The Rutgers coach said that she was deeply saddened and angered that Imus said these things about the talented young women on the team who had worked so hard to reach the finals and play for the school’s first national championship in a major sport. She further stated, “To serve as a joke of Mr. Imus in such an insensitive manner creates a wedge and makes light of the efforts of these classy individuals, both as women and as women of color. It is unfortunate Mr. Imus sought to tarnish Rutgers' spirit and success. Should we not, as adults, send a message of encouragement to young people to aspire to the highest levels as my team did this season?"

Don Imus lost my respect some time ago when he referred to PBS’ Gwen Ifill as a “cleaning lady”. Gwen Ifill is a veteran African-American journalist who has covered the White House, Congress, presidential campaigns and government for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Evening Sun and The Boston Herald American. In 1999, she joined the Jim Lehrer “NewsHour” as a Washington-based senior correspondent responsible for conducting newsmaker interviews, studio discussions and debates, reporting from the field and serving as a backup anchor to Jim Lehrer.

If you have ever seen any of Gwen Ifill's interviews, you have observed a true, astute journalist interested not in sensationalism but in bringing out the facts of a case and the opinions of the people she interviews. I might contrast her style of interviewing with that of Bill O'Reilly, who recently had Geraldo Rivera on his program. They were "discussing" immigration when they started yelling and shouting at each other to the point that one expected fisticuffs to take place at any moment, reminiscent of the daily "fights" on the Jerry Springer Show.

What is wrong with Don Imus calling Gwen Ifill a “cleaning lady”? Some of the older bloggers on Blogstream can remember a time when the only job open to an intelligent and talented black woman such as Gwen Ifill was that of a “cleaning lady” working in the home of a white family. That is what is wrong with it.

Finicky Food Preferences

President George H. W. Bush, the 41st President and the father of Dubya, is remembered for a much-quoted statement about a finicky food preference: “I do not like broccoli. And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli.” And as the President of the United States of America, if you don’t want to eat broccoli, you don’t have to. Actually, broccoli is one of my favorite foods, along with cauliflower and asparagus. I can’t say that I liked any of those foods the first time I tasted them. But over time, I acquired a preference for them.

I have a grandson who will not eat any berries that have the colors of red or blue. Raspberries, blueberries, boysenberries, strawberries, cranberries and other red and blue berries too numerous to list fall under that rubric. When I asked him why he avoids red berries, he said that it is because they look gross. I also have heard of individuals who shun certain foods, including lettuce, coconut, pineapple, and kiwis, because of their taste or texture. It is almost impossible for some people to eat a salad. I relish salads of all kinds, and my wife has numerous recipes for the preparation of various salads.

I like fish when I am eating it, but I don’t like to smell the fish that other people are eating when I am trying to feast on a steak. It makes me want to gag. My wife likes fish, but she doesn’t want it to taste “fishy.” I think she wants her fish to taste like chicken. I like thin pork chops, but I don’t like for them to taste “porky.”

There is an eating disorder that causes some individuals to become physically ill when they experience the sight, smell, or texture of certain foods. For that reason, they often try to avoid dinner parties where they cannot control the food being served. Then there is the case of a man who would not eat foods that had touched on his plate. His wife would serve him his food preferences one at a time. In restaurants, he would bypass foods that had come in contact with each other on his plate, saying that although he knew that the foods all came in contact after he ate them, for some strange reason he found it repulsive when they came into contact on his plate.

The first time we ordered a fish dinner in Puerto Vallarta, it was served with its head intact. In Mexico, many restaurants apparently serve fish that way, but I had never seen fish served in that manner before. I don’t like for my animal foods to remind me of how the animals looked when they were alive, and a roasted pig with an apple in its mouth at a luau probably would make me physically ill.

Well, I suppose people could place a blindfold over their eyes and put nose plugs in their nostrils while eating, but then they couldn’t taste the food, could they?

What finicky food preferences do you or your friends have that might be of interest? Do you know how you acquired those preferences?