Author: Gibas, Talia

Publication Year: 2015

Media Type:

Summary:

Excerpted from Arts & America: Arts, Culture, and the Future of America’s Communities. This essay looks at pending changes within the K–12 American formal education system and the role that the arts may play in positively impacting those changes over the next 10–15 years. The full book of essays can be purchased in Americans for the Arts online store.

Abstract:

This essay looks at pending changes within the K–12 American formal education system and the role that the arts may play in positively impacting those changes over the next 10–15 years. In particular, this
essay proposes the following trends and associated arts interventions:

• What is expected of students will shift from simple fact recitation and rote memorization toward deeper and more nuanced learning via systems and concepts. This shift opens up opportunities for the arts to be engaged to create more well-rounded learning environments, as well as a need for the arts to step in to achieve equity in access to quality education.
• The blurring of boundaries between the digital and physical learning environment and the increased acceptance of non-place-based learning environments as legitimate alternatives to in-school learning will increase, possibly increasing access to education, but also posing a very real possibility of niche learning experiences that may narrow the worldview of students. The arts will play a role in providing a commons for place-based engagement and learning, as well as an outlet for combating such insulated views.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Arts Education