Author: Fowler, Charles B.

Publication Year:

Media Type: Periodical (article)

Summary:

Abstract:

Review, titled Straightforward Common Sense, by Paul Lehman of the book, Strong Arts, Strong Schools: The Promising Potential and Shortsighted Disregard of the Arts in American Schooling, by Charles Fowler. [New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1996. 227 p.]

• The arts are an important part of basic education for all students.
• Good schools tend to have good arts programs.
• The needs the skills that the arts teach.
• Our schools should focus on more than merely how to earn a living.

These are some of the basic premises of Charles Fowler's book Strong Arts, Strong Schools. A downtrodden army of cultureless children is marching toward a barren and depleted adulthood and taking the future of our civilization with them, Fowler contends. But, happily, there is still time to avoid that fate if we act now. The crucial issues facing arts education today are numerous and well known. In this series of nineteen compelling essays, Fowler reviews most of these issues and brings new insight to many of them. He summarizes the reasons why every student should study the arts. He deals with curriculum, creativity, teacher education, and education reform. He discusses the relationship of the arts to society, the role of the arts in education, and building support for arts education. He proposes an agenda for the future. Strong Arts, Strong Schools is directed to the public and to the supporters of arts education who need more knowledge of the topic.

Fowler cites three trends that he considers to hold enormous promise for arts education: making the arts more academic, accepting the arts as basic, and viewing the arts comprehensively.

They offer a balanced view, and they provide a variety of constructive suggestions on a variety of topics. Above all, they represent a comprehensive diagnosis of the problems facing arts education today, and they provide perhaps the closest thing we currently have to a prescription for a remedy.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Arts Education