Another keeper and to be shared widely. This is beautifully said Renee. I will do all I can to keep your soapbox standing!! Sally
On 7/22/11 10:58 AM, "Renee" <[email protected]> wrote: > I absolutely agree with this. Taking students out of Art, Music, and > PE sends a message that only some parts of the curriculum are > important, and also deprives children of equal access to the > curriculum and, subsequently, a well-rounded education. There are > lessons to be learned in Art, Music, and PE that are intrinsic and > exclusive to those subjects, AND there are also lessons to be learned > in Art, Music, and PE that enhance, supplement, explain, clarify, > synthesize, and support literacy, mathematics, science, and social > studies. In a society that boasts an increasing number of obese > children, excluding a child from PE is counterproductive in the long > run. Excluding children from Art and Music deprives them of > connections to cultural knowledge that are not particularly > accessible in other ways. Not to mention, that those children who are > strong visual or musical or kinesthetic learners NEED these > strategies just as much as they NEED to learn to read, and in fact > might find it easier to learn to read if their learning styles are > considered. > > Sadly, too many people consider the arts and humanities to be "fluff" > and "frill" because they do not see the supportive, supplementary, > enhancing role that these subjects play in the overall education of > the future leaders of society. Perhaps if our current batch of Wall > Street moguls and corporate leaders had had a little more education > in the humanities, we might not be in the mess we are in today. > > There is a wonderful and very short article in Edutopia that speaks > to the humanities: > http://www.edutopia.org/blog/humanities-twenty-first-century-bill-smoot > > And I would reiterate that the 10 Lessons the Arts Teach are > important lessons for all children, not just those who play around in > the boxes we invent for them: > http://www.arteducators.org/advocacy/10-lessons-the-arts-teach > > This is a big, big issue for me, since I am very much a visual > learner, while my son is very much a musical learner, and my daughter > is very much a verbal learner. Three totally different learning > styles and three totally different ways of approaching the world. We > should not be taking these important differentiations away from > children; in fact, they do not get enough of them. > > Sorry about the soapbox. > Renee > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive
