Art of Learning

The Exchange Press Out of the Box Training Kit, Art for All Children, presents a plan for training teachers to use the arts to enhance the social and cognitive development of children with special needs.  In their article, "The Art of Learning," in USA Today (January 2, 2014) Harvard President Drew Faust and musician Wynton Marsalis argue that the arts should be a central part of the education of all children:

"We not only need to equip [children] with the ability to answer the questions relevant to the world we now inhabit; we must also enable them to ask the right questions to shape the world to come.  We need education that nurtures judgment as well as mastery, ethics, and values as well as analysis.  We need learning that will enable students to interpret complexity, to adapt and make sense of lives they never anticipated.  We need a way of teaching that encourages them to develop understanding of those different from themselves, enabling constructive collaborations across national and cultural origins and identities.

"In other words, we need learning that incorporates what the arts teach us.  

"The arts are about imagining beyond the bounds of the known.  They embrace the past and the future of the human mind and soul.  Playing music can be both a model and a metaphor for important aspects of the lives our children will be called upon to lead....

"Music stresses individual practice and technical excellence, but it also necessitates listening to and working with others in fulfillment of the requirements of ensemble performance....

"Learning to play or paint, dance, sing, or act means constantly being refashioned, constantly demanding risk."

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