Hello, and welcome to the first of what will be a series of blogs concerning the arts in a project based learning setting. It's my hope that I can facilitate conversations nation wide concerning the arts in schools and why it is so important to keep them. Also, I want to offer any expertise I may have to those that are starting out in the field.
For those of you who may not know me, I work at Triton Central High School, near Fairland, IN. TCHS is a New Tech Network affiliate. I teach a class called "LitMus" which is English 10, Literature and Musicology combined. Musicology is both Music History and Music Theory/Composition. My partner, the English expert, is a brilliant and patient lady named Sarah Papin-Thomas. Prior to moving into my current position, I served as the Director of Choral Activities at the Middle School and the High School.
But enough about me, let's talk about the arts...
Currently we are living in a most exceptional time. Our students are being inundated by media almost endlessly. They have the world at their fingertips through cellphones, laptops, iPads... yet they have very little understanding of the content that they are absorbing. Ask any student to define "art" or "music" and you will find varying answers, none of which grasp the real heart of what the arts are: a universal language.
Dr. Ken Robinson gave a TED talk a few years ago discussing changing educational paradigms. In it he discussed how it has become common practice to anesthetize students instead of waking them up to what is going on around them. He directly addresses the arts in that they create aesthetic moments in which the students are, as he says, "fully alive."
Utilizing the arts in schools is, I believe, the key to deeper learning. We can test them until the proverbial cows come home - and no doubt we will under the current laws - but students learn through experiences. Honestly examine what you know. How did you acquire your knowledge? What events surrounded the discovery of whatever it is that you are thinking of? If we're honest with ourselves, it was an experience that solidified in our minds the reality of the concept. Creating experiences with which the students can "anchor" their memory is vital to both comprehension and long term memory retention.
I'll give you an example, let's talk about China. Look at pictures of China on the internet. Read a few books on China. Learn some facts about China. This is all very good, and there is a marginal amount of learning that does happen here. However - go to China. Stand on the streets. Visit a temple. Hear the language. Try to eat a meal... Which experience is more potent? Of course going there. Of course seeing/hearing/smelling/tasting it first hand.
So you can't go to China. There is no funding for you, and there won't be. However, you can create an aesthetic experience that brings China to your students. Listening to the Peking Opera on line. Letting the students hear the language, see the costumes, hear the music. This event will help to take them to everything that is Chinese. It will open their eyes to a people that seem so distant to us. Compare that opera to our own opera. Compare those costumes, the lighting, the props, the stage to what we're used too...
Don't like opera? Movies are, in a sense, modern opera. Utilize the arts to create aesthetic experiences for deeper learning. That's what it's all about.
