Author: Regelski, Thomas A.

Publication Year: 1977

Media Type: Report

Summary:

Our institutions, then, have long educated only half the child, the so-called rational or logical half. Education has catered mainly to practical kinds of intellect, and society, through its functionaries in public schools, has even expected music and art classes to be like those of other subject fields. Tests, grades, information for its own sake, competition, and so on have been emphasized to the detriment of the feeling or aesthetic elements of the arts. The feeling realm of the metaphoric right hemisphere has been banished to the realm of window dressing, frosting on the cake, public relations, and the like. And under economic pressure, of course these are among the first areas of the school to suffer.

Abstract:

Our institutions, then, have long educated only half the child, the so-called rational or logical half. Education has catered mainly to practical kinds of intellect, and society, through its functionaries in public schools, has even expected music and art classes to be like those of other subject fields. Tests, grades, information for its own sake, competition, and so on have been emphasized to the detriment of the feeling or aesthetic elements of the arts. The feeling realm of the metaphoric right hemisphere has been banished to the realm of window dressing, frosting on the cake, public relations, and the like. And under economic pressure, of course these are among the first areas of the school to suffer.

But now it is no longer possible to ignore the full education rightly deserved by the minor hemisphere. In education the right hemisphere must once again assume the position of equality and synergy with the left hemisphere it had at birth. It is time for humans to use their whole brain instead of overemphasizing only half. The behavior of the young people who are the products of an education emphasizing the practical indicates something is wrong. The seeming needs of the young for drugs, hyper-evangelism, meditation, mysticism, and music played less for listening than to shut out reality are all related, not coincidentally, to right-hemisphere activities. By their behavior and by their so-called discipline problems, young people demonstrate their need to feel whole. (p. 8)

CONTENTS
1. The new brain and its functions.
2. The learning process.
3. Aesthetic learning.
4. Future directions for education and research.
5. Notes.
6. Appendixes.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Arts Education