The Figure Within Us: A Case for Arts Education

by Jim Collins

I recently visited with my 22 month-old grandson, Jimmy. For the entire visit, I was obsessed with watching this little boy live life. As he went about his daily business of eating and playing, I could almost hear him thinking! Absorbing all that was around him at break-neck speed, he was full of curiosity, constantly trying to make sense of the world, testing his own personal theories on how “things” work, developing his own talents of self-expression, learning from his own successes and failures, and embracing challenges as a very normal part of life. He was transforming before my own eyes!

As an educator, I can’t help but remind myself that all people have the capacity to live life like Jimmy. Life should be a relentless search for meaning through continual learning, and through developing our own idiosyncrasies. And, as someone who has spent my entire professional career in education, I am re-affirmed that schools should be predicated on this foundational belief of human development; all our lives we are in search of personal growth, individual uniqueness, and the need to leave a legacy.

However, I am concerned about our schools. Today’s emphasis, particularly embraced by the No Child Left Behind Federal legislation, is on the development of skills and knowledge in reading, math, and science. Although these are critical to a child’s academic growth and future, I fear that our attention to these basic skills will suppress that ability for children to mature creatively and to release talents in other areas.

In particular, we must protect the arts: music, drama, visual arts, dance, and all other forms of expression. Schools risk becoming boring factories of basic academic skills if students are not allowed to explore the world through these avenues. Schools must fight for the responsible balance between the two or we risk losing part of our soul. Educational standards, although necessary, should not be the sole curriculum; they should also support the curriculum of the soul.

Without the arts, our society would lose many of its interesting facets, much of the spirit that drives us, and become a society filled with uniformity rather than individualistic spirit. If we don’t learn to value the arts as young students, what happens when we become adults? If we eliminate arts learning for this generation of children, what will the world be like in thirty years? The opportunity to learn through the arts, so superbly accomplished by Creative Leaps and The Learning Arts, should not be diminished in any way.

My grandson needs to mature intellectually by learning key academic skills that are crucial to his success.  However, he must also develop his unique talents and interests to be the responsible, self-expressive, imaginative, and contributing member of a free and exciting world. When questioned about his ability to sculpt, Michelangelo said, “The figures lie imprisoned within the marble waiting for me to release them.” Let us not imprison Jimmy, or anyone else, by taking away the full value of arts education in our curriculum.

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