Author: National School Boards Association

Publication Year: 1977

Media Type: Report

Summary:

Abstract:

Probably the most notable effort in the realm of arts education last year was the much-publicized final report of the blue ribbon Arts, Education, and Americans Panel. The report, entitled Coming to our Senses: the Significance of the Arts for American Education, has proven to be one of the year's most important and best-selling education books. It is probably the most comprehensive treatment to date on the state of arts education in America's public schools in 1977. For two years, a team of researchers interviewed thousands of artists and school people, visited schools, conducted studies, collected exhaustive data, and reported its findings to the Arts, Education and Americans Panel members, distinguished for their professional experience in the field of arts education and for their concern about the way Americans live.

In his introduction to the Report, David Rockefeller, Jr., chairman of the panel, wrote that it is a recent notion in America that education and arts are important partners, but the idea is clearly gaining support and is even demonstrated by the mix of organizations which financed this Report. In an unusual collaborative gesture, the Office of Education and the National Endowment for the Arts, both federal agencies, became important early contributors.

The remainder of this Research Report is an NSBA-prepared digest of the much longer Coming To Our Senses: The Significance of the Arts in American Education. The book is available from the McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Its original 334 pages have been condensed by deleting several chapters which focus on art in higher education, the history of art education, and non-school sources of art education. In addition, the Introduction and other chapters have been shortened and many illustrations and photographs have been deleted. We have concentrated, instead, on what is being done in the public schools - both elementary and secondary - and on the teaching of art. Also, those recommendations of the Panel which speak directly to public school people have been included.

CONTENTS
Foreword.
Introduction.
The Arts: Central to all learning.
The arts in today's elementary schools.
The arts in today's secondary schools.
The people behind the curriculum.
Beyond the schools: community resources supplement school budgets.
Recommendations of the arts, education and Americans Panel, 1976.
Notes.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Arts Education