National Art Education Association

A New Priority: Arts and HumanitiesAuthor(s): Vivienne AndersonSource: Art Education, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Mar., 1971), pp. 10-11Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3191552 .

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A New Priority: Art And Humanities Vivienne Anderson The humanities and the arts are already making their mark as one of education's top priorities in the 1970's and the remainder of the 20th century. The general affluence of society and the ease of technological living have freed our minds and our frantic schedules to the point where we can thoughtfully examine our- selves: our humanity as individuals, the values by which we live, and the

deeply desired opportunity to humanize society through individual expression and through placing man in the center of our complex universe.

New York State Education Com- missioner, Ewald B. Nyquist, describes his deep commitment to this philosophy in the following manner:

I was recently asked what one thing I hope to accomplish as Commissioner of Education, if money were no consideration. With or without money, my single objective is to make the educa- tional enterprise of this State more humanistic. Humanistic education means a way of looking at the world which emphasizes the importance of man, his nature and central place in the universe.

The New York State Board of

Regents designates the arts and humanities a Department priority in the position paper entitled Humani- ties and Arts in Elementary and

Secondary Education. Their strong commitment is expressed in the

following excerpt from the position paper:

We believe that a special oppor- tunity exists in the humanities and the arts to provide the leadership needed for a true educational renaissance in our school system. We believe especially that litera- ture, drama, music, the dance, and the visual arts can help young people to relate to one another, and to the universe, with a new sense of excitement, concern, and reverence.

The Arts and the Search for Values

Perhaps the most important activity of students, starting with the youngest preschool and elementary school child, is to search for values by exploring in cultures past and

present, at home and afar, man's arts, his alternative values, his commit- ments and achievements. It is this search for values that gives purpose to acquiring knowledge, that makes knowledge a tool through which child and man reshape their indi- vidual existence and that of society.

Again, starting with the youngest child, the arts, being concerned with human values, lie at the root of humanizing the curriculum. The arts project dramatically and graphically the ways man, through the ages, has found to express his insights, his understanding of himself, and of his world. The child will learn to see beyond the differences depicted in the arts and to discern their uni- versality, which symbolizes the underlying kinship of human beings. And the child's participation in the arts-through self-expression-makes his life meaningful, builds security in his self image, and helps him to relate to others.

Arts for the 100%

Today, the arts must be designed for the 100%-not only for the relatively small percentage of our specially talented students who per- form in school bands, choruses, and orchestras, or who plan to continue with serious study in the visual arts.

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The arts must be at the core of education for all children, because they represent the most powerful single channel for humanizing the curriculum, for "reaching" the inner- most feelings and responses of every child, and for motivating the desire to learn, to create, and to express.

We are rapidly moving toward a vast popularization of technology. Within ten or fifteen years, the computer will probably be as com- mon as the telephone and television.

Children will have their own mini- computers. They will be able to "plug in" and get the factual information they seek; computerized data banks will vie with libraries as sources of information about the human record.

Thus, because of the enormously increased mechanization which con- fronts us, it is absolutely imperative that a massive, concerted effort be made by teachers and administrators to 1) plan to use technology for purposes of human growth and the solution of human problems and 2) place major emphasis on the arts and humanities to prevent the development of an overbearingly technological society.

As an example, the youngest children could, on their own level of maturity, learn to use the com- puter to get information and trends on the social problems of the area in which they live, whether it be the city, the suburbs, or rural America. They could then use the computer to simulate actual model methods, which they themselves create, for the solution of these problems. Thus, technology would become a useful tool for humanitarian purposes, and children would apply their creative

thinking and planning for purposes of bettering the human condition.

The Arts and the Environment The approach described above is

linked directly to one of the major purposes of arts education-that of stimulating the child's awareness of his environment, both physical and social. It is a step in guiding him to translate this awareness into an improved "art of living." Let us create educational programs in which the 100% become sensitive to their environment. Thus education will open the door for youth to improve, through their own inventive planning, the atmosphere of the school, the home, the neighborhood and com- munity. Just as the humanities build a foundation for critical judgments about the things that enhance life, the arts draw young people into a common effort to improve the quality of life for themselves and others.

Perhaps the most important re- sponsibility teachers and administra- tors can assume today is that of creating policy which will place the arts and humanities in the essence of all that we do in education. In this way, education will become more humanistic, and both the individual and society will reap the benefits they need so desperately from the creative planning of youth.

Vivienne Anderson is director, Division of the Humanities and the Arts, New York State Education Department, Albany, New York.

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