Progressive Education National Network

[McCandless]

The importance of art in every day life, of art in progressive education is eloquently laid out in Eric Booth’s book, The Everyday Work of Art. A series of short quotes from that work – of art – follow:

“Art is not apart. It is a continuum within which we all participate; we all function in art, use the skills of art, and engage in the action of artists every day.”

“If we can acknowledge and honor the art we perform… we can dramatically enrich the quality of daily life.”

“To engage fully in the work of art, all you really need are the skills you already have.”

“In claiming our rightful partnership with [masters such as Ludwig von Beethoven, Vincent Van Gogh, Dylan Thomas, and Rudolf Nureyev,] we neither diminish their achievements, nor set unrealistic expectations for our own efforts.”

“Aesthetic education is a practice that uses teaching-artists to engage people of any age inside works of art.”

“It has been proven that good high school arts programs reduce dropout rates and absenteeism.”

“In Paleolithic times, art was a life-essential, right up there with food, water, shelter, sleep, yes, and worship.”

“In the humbling process of making things with meaning, we have insights that deepen our study of other people’s work.”

“Any curiosity can take you into a world.”

“Art is reading the world… . ‘Reading the world’ is the practice of encountering the ordinary pieces of your life as if they were full of meaning.”

“When reading the world becomes a mindset we can adopt at any time, we attain the ultimate literacy: the capacity to see beyond the literal.”

“All people have this naturally healthy, joyful, creative instinct beaming in them.”

Art is wonder. “Wonder is both scarce and hard to kill.”

Because progressive schools consciously try to meet the needs of the whole child, art is an integral part of progressive education. Not only do performing and appreciating art tap into the deepest aspects of human cognition, they also resonate with spirituality. It is no surprise that a person feels awe listening to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony or standing before Monet’s Water Lilies.

One would be hard put to argue that art is not good for, and therefore pleasing to the spirit. But what about intellect? Robert Sternberg speaks of three intelligences rather than a single, general intelligence. Two of these, semantic intelligence (traditional schooled intelligence) and practical intelligence (everyday problem-solving) are animated by the third, creative intelligence. Is there any other realm of human endeavor that promotes creative intelligence more than art?

Progressive schools engage students in the creative construction of knowledge – knowledge of self, of one’s role in society, of the world. Music, drama, dance, painting, and sculpture all bring together disparate aspects of self for the purpose of public performance. Art exists for the act of creation, for the artist, and for the audience. As such, it is both intensely private and nakedly public. Art builds confidence in self. Art enlivens all domains of human knowing, and it is an integral part of the learning experience and of the daily life of students in a progressive school.