Help Secure Our Piece of the Pie

As we enter the New Year, Congress commences a new session.  There are many important issues on the docket:  the possible repeal of the Obama Health Care Reform, the Open Internet Order, and overall spending.  However, the issue most important to me is funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, a public agency dedicated to bringing the arts to all Americans.  The NEA is the largest annual national funder of the arts.  A strong connection to arts education, the NEA helps to fund and carry out educational initiatives, such as The Big Read, which gives communities the opportunity to read and discuss one of 31 selections from the U.S. and world literary cannon.

In fiscal year (FY) 2010, the NEA was granted $167.5 million to be disbursed to arts organizations, new and established, throughout the United States.   This past February President Obama proposed a $6.4 million decrease for the FY 2011 NEA budget.  The House of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), raised the initial funding level to $170 million this past July.  This is $2.5 million increase over the budget allotment in FY 2010.  The money the Federal government budgets for the NEA each year helps to fund jobs, create safe and educational places for our children to stay after school, enrich the lives of Americans, and increase our cultural worth in world.  While I could write hundreds of thousands of pages lauding the work of the NEA, I am here to ask each reader to contact his or her elected officials and ask them to support the increase to $170 million dollars for the NEA in FY 2011.  With five minutes of your time, you can help to support the arts in America.  Please click here to visit the Americans for the Arts advocacy page to contact your elected officials.  

Caro

Context Is Key

I recently read an article in Publishers Weekly about a professor who is "updating" The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventure of Tom Sawyer by replacing the now culturally offensive "nigger" with the more politically correct word "slave."  Alan Gribben is replacing the n-word in attempt to make the books more accessible and teachable in the 21st century classroom.  Gribben is working with the NEA's Big Read initiative in Alabama. 

While I commend Gribben's efforts for trying to make these masterpieces more suitable for today's classrooms, I cannot help but be ashamed for our society.  We are raising a bunch of weak-minded children who cannot tolerate even learning, let alone questioning, the social conventions of yesteryear.  I read The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn in high school.  I felt uncomfortable every time I read the word "nigger," but my American Literature teacher took the time to explain to me and the class that in the historical context of the book, the n-word wasn't wrong.  It was part of the culture, socially acceptable.  That didn't mean she was advocating our use of it now or ever.  Instead she was opening our eyes to how America was and allowing us to see into a part of history that has helped us become the country we are today.  By glossing over issues like slavery and making books politically correct, we are taking away the importance of the issues being discussed in books like Huckleberry Finn.  Keeping the word "nigger" in the books opens up the opportunity to discuss the power of words -- the abuse thereof, how words came to have the connotations they do now, ways we can combat negative uses, etc.

Several of the teachers Gribben spoke to said they felt they couldn't teach Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer in the 21st century classroom.  Why?  Is it because today's children have been raised to believe that anything that doesn't fit the politically correct social mold we've created is offensive?  I find that ironic because these are the same kids who will call each other "slut," "whore," and "fag" without any thought.  I hear children and adult alike using the phrase, "That's gay." as a substitute for "That's stupid."  Why isn't anyone making a bigger deal about that?  Homosexuals have feelings too, and they do take offense when someone synonymously interchanges homosexuality with stupidity.  I used to be one of those kids who inappropriately used the word gay until my freshman year of college when a classmate, who later became one of my best friends, explained how offensive it was to him when I negatively connotated his lifestyle.  From that day on I never used gay to mean stupid.  All it took was someone pointing out how my words affect other people for me to change my ways.  I am not saying it's going to be the same way for everyone, but talking about it will help.  In 125 years are people going to change gay in every book?  By changing nigger to slave in Mark Twain's novels, we are giving the n-word more power, reinforcing its negative meanings.  If we ever want to progress as a nation we need to look at our history and question it, not rewrite it.

A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action, Please

A college friend of mine, Carl, is a second year teacher at a high school in Eastern Iowa.  Over the past couple years we've had several conversations about the state of arts and general education.  We have come to the conclusion the potential is there, but nothing is being done.  Carl recently wrote a blog entry about the continuous conversation about the need for education reform in the State of Iowa and how often the blame of poor performing students is placed upon the shoulders of the educators.  Carl goes on to outline the top four obstacles teachers face: quality professional development, the evolution of academic priority, parents and public misconceptions.  As a young, enthusiastic educator trying to make a difference in the lives of his students, Carl has shed a new light of these issues.

I wholeheartedly agree with Carl's assessment and can only  hope and pray my tax dollars are being spent effectively to positively reform Iowa's education system.  For too long people have been complaining about the current system and giving suggestions as to make it better.  However, that doesn't do anyone any good until we actually DO something about it.  What does knowing the test teach us?  Absolutely nothing beyond the fact that our students have the capability to be mindless drones that can regurgitate force-fed facts.  What happened to education being about the experience?  Why are good grades a given, something a student deserves, rather than an award?  The grade inflation rate is outrageous!  Shouldn't what a student learned be more important than the overall grade earned in a class.  In my personal academic career, spanning from high school to graduate school, I have taken many classes where I received an A for my final grade and felt like I didn't learn anything.  However, on the flip-side, I've taken classes where I worked very hard to earn a B. Those B's are so much more important to be because I was challenged and felt I actually learned something.

Why does the whole of the fault of poor academic performance of students have to be placed on the shoulders of teachers?  As Carl points out in his post, parents are a major influence on the performances of their children.  This extends far beyond the academic arena.  When parents are supportive and involved in the lives of their children, they perform better.  They become contributing members of society.  Why? Because their parents were a good example.  If parents took the time to be a part of the lives of their children and teach them positive social values and good work ethic, perhaps our educators will be more successful in their teaching.  It is not fair to expect our grossly overworked and underpaid educators to be parents by proxy AND teach our children algebraic equations.  This is a challenge to all parents out there:  ask your child what he or she learned in school today, ask if they helped anyone, ask if they met anyone new.  Engage with your child.  Please do not expect television to raise your children.  Trust me, the Kardashians are far from the best example your children need.  Please inspire your child to aspire to be more than a contestant on the Bachelor in 2020.  Try to keep your kids in school and positively reinforce their good behavior.  At the least tell them you love them.  Seriously, all these daddy issues are guaranteeing us an army of strippers for generations to come.

I realize there are plenty of teachers out there who are in the field because it's a safer bet - benefits are good, guaranteed retirement. But there are so many more teachers who actually care.  Why not install some sort of reward system based on student evaluations within middle and high schools.  If nothing else, it's another way to get students to write.  I understand these students can't vote yet, but they do have opinions.  Maybe this is idealist in me, but I think allowing students to actively shape their education would empower them to take ownership of it.  Sometimes all it takes is to ask a student what they think to get them involved.  Plus the evaluations may help teachers who aren't effectively reaching their students to adapt their methods.

I understand that education reform is going to take a lot more money, time and effort than we really want to put it.  However, we must remember the age old adage, "You reap what you sow."  We need to invest in our future today.  Start small.  Parents pay attention to your children; encourage them to do their best and learn something.  Please, teach your children manners and positive social behaviors.  Teachers, keep up the good work.  Administrators, pay communicate with your teachers and with the parents in your district.  State Legislators, don't aim for perfection, aim for what is realistic. Small, measurable and achievable goals are a good idea.  Don't set yourselves up for failure.  It doesn't make you look good.  Community members, please act like you're in a community; take an interest in the schools and the education of your future community leaders.  We want to cultivate a flourishing garden of educated global citizens, but that takes time, effort, and money.  Please invest.

Will this be on the test?

I’m currently in an arts and education class, and our “textbook” is a giant packet of articles supporting arts education both in and out of schools. The point is the arts are important. So far every single article has the same theme: “The arts are good. We need them in school. They're important for creating well-rounded individuals who possess critical thinking skills. The arts also develop creative thinking skills which are essential for today's workplace environment.”

So riddle me this world, why are the arts in schools not funded? Why are the arts the first line item in the budget to be cut? Why is gym, excuse me, physical education, mandatory, but the arts aren’t? Yes, I understand that our children are obese and we need to fix that. But without arts education our children are also being taught to be mindless robots. Teaching the test teaches children there isn’t room for creativity. And when there isn’t room for creativity, there isn’t any room for advancement.

It’s time for a brief, but poignant history lesson. Without creativity and critical thinking skills, Alexander Graham Bell would never have invented the telephone. Thomas Alva Edison wouldn’t have invented the light bulb. The world would be without chocolate chip cookies and fire and cars and anything that does not occur naturally. Without the creativity of the arts we would still be walking around naked and dying by the time we’re 30. Is that what you want? I didn’t think so.

It’s your move world. Do you want your children to know the test and be brain dead drones or do you want to them to be functional and contributing members of society?

--C