Welcome to Creative Leaps

Winter 2005

Warm wishes for 2005! This issue contains useful information and updates for everyone interested in education and the arts:

For administrators: Jeff Archer discusses a Principal's many challenges in "Tackling an Impossible Job";

For teachers and parents: Read about Peter Perret's inspiring book on music in the classroom, The Well-Tempered Mind;

For everyone: Important statistics on the impact of arts education, and an important word from Creative Leaps President John Cimino: consilience and the unity of interdisciplinary learning.

 

Did You Know?...
Facts on Education, Student Achievement, and the Arts

In the wake of the assessment-based education policies of recent years, and the resulting diminishing number of children exposed to artistic and interdisciplinary educations, the following is a sampling of statistics and facts gathered from Americans for the Arts (www.americansforthearts.org), proving the efficacy of arts exposure in the classroom, and the necessary relationships of learning, personal growth, and the arts.

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Tackling an Impossible Job by Jeff Archer

appears courtesy of:

www.edweek.org

After years of hearing that a principal's main job should be to raise the quality of instruction, districts and states are experimenting with ways to make that ideal a reality. New policies are emerging to give principals more of the time, training, and tools to become leaders of school improvement, rather than managers of operations....

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A Word: Consilience by John Cimino

The word this month is consilience: a rare word until recently, recovered for us by biologist Edward O. Wilson. Consilience (literally, a "jumping together" of knowledge across disciplines) is all about "connectivity" and the weaving together of ideas from different domains of knowledge to reveal deeper, common groundworks of explanation.

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The Well-Tempered Mind by Peter Perret (Overview)

Peter Perret, conductor of the Winston-Salem Symphony, chronicles in A Well-Tempered Mind how a brief NPR feature about music and the brain inspired him to create an innovative music education program for first- through third-graders at two elementary schools in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The musicians from his woodwind quintet taught the children to listen to music, detect the roles of the instruments, discern how music is constructed, and even compose their own music.

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THE LEARNING ARTS Program Highlight:
Percussion and Music Theatre

Once upon a time, two crazy musicians (Richard Albagli, pictured, and John Cimino) created an innovative program on the joys of Percussion and Music Theatre. Designed specifically for grade-school students, the original workshop incorporated Oliver Twist, Man of La Mancha, marimbas, kettle drums, woodblocks, chimes, and a lion's roar! Over twenty years later, The Learning Arts and Percussion and Music Theatre are still going strong, delighting young audiences with this hands-on workshop.