Why The Arts Will Become Much More Important In The Next Few Years

If you're an artist you already know the reasoning behind this. Unfortunately, for many schools, they have focused so long on Math and Science that they have really done a lot of damage to upcoming generations. Of course, it hasn't been 100% the fault of the schools. Most of it has come from the pressure put on schools by the No Child Left Behind Act to perform "Adequately" in Math and Science.

If not voluntarily, then schools will change their focus by sheer necessity in the near future. I'll tell you right away that I am an art teacher and a musician. I also do scene design work with our theatre department. So, admittedly, I'm a bit biased towards the arts. However, I believe I'm right on when I say that our education systems have been heavily out of balance with a dominance towards "core subjects," such as Math and Science. If there were any subject that should be a core subject it is Art due to its inherent nature to teach students to be creative and innovative thinkers. Math and Science have there place, but they are essentially worthless without the capacity to think creatively.

The thing that many people forget (or more likely because they have never been taught) is that at the heart of mathematics and scientific thinking is curiosity and uncertainty. Pioneers in both of those fields were essentially artists. They were curious about the world in which they lived. They developed systematic ways of thinking in order to try to understand the phenomenon around them. They were creators of theories and formulas and rational systems of thought. But we don't teach that to our students. We teach them to follow the formulas of those artists in order to get the "right" answers. Somehow the fact that these are just tools to use gets interpreted as if they are the only ways to frame one's perspective. We have developed a bunch of followers, and very few leaders.

We live in a very diverse world. On top of that, it is changing continually at an incredible pace. It is essential to become comfortable with ambiguity. Artists know how to deal with ambiguity. As the world changes, new ways of framing issues becomes necessary. This is what artists do. There are no formulas for us. We create things as needed. Artists are designers. We value the process as much as the product. Life is a process. We must value it as such. The work must always be refined and we have to be okay with the fact that we never fully reach our visions, but we must continually strive to come closer with each transformation of our work. As a society, that's how we progress as well.

Our world today is one in which we can find information instantly. Most rational thought processes will eventually be replicated by computer technology, many already have been replaced. However, human beings are very complicated creatures. We're more than just logic processers. All of those aspects of humanity such as: intuition, emotions, and spirituality, are developed through the arts. They cannot be replicated by computers. The only way we can become complete is to cultivate those aspects of ourselves. Our current systems of education are failing at this, for the most part. Ironically, we're not doing so well with the rational thought processes either. We desperately need a balance of both types of thinking.

As employers increasingly realize that they need innovative thinkers, we'll have to better serve the creative sides of our students' abilities. As we come to the realization that most of the jobs that our students will have don't even exist today, we'll have to teach our students to understand that the world doesn't just happen, we create it. They don't have to follow the paths that have already been laid out. They may have to create a new path.

The schools of the future will have to realize these facts and adjust accordingly. If we fail to do so, our public schools will cease to exist. However, I have faith that educators will be able to transform ourselves as we need to. We'll just have to get the bureaucracy out of the way.