Strong Arts, Strong Schools —— The Promising Potential and Shortsighted Disregard of the Arts in American Schooling

----- 强大的艺术，强大的学校：美国学校教育中潜在的有潜力和短视的艺术

ISBN: 9780195100891 出版年：2011 页码：238 Fowler, Charles, the late Oxford University Press

Because of cuts in school budgets, coupled with anxiety about an apparent decline is basic academic skills, many parents, educators, and policy makers have come to view arts education--the teaching of music, painting, dancing, or creative writing--as a luxury, an unnecessary drain on time and money better applied to the three Rs. But in Strong Arts, Strong Schools, one of America's leading champions of arts in the schools, the late Charles Fowler, provides compelling evidence that the arts are a vital component of any child's education. Indeed, he shows that schools with strong arts programs are also stronger academically--that the arts enhance an academic education. Fowler marshalls a wide range of arguments in favor of arts education, arguments that go well beyond the simple plea of "art for art's sake." He points out, for instance, that the arts provide multiple ways to experience the world around us and that they help us to express our relationship to this world. The arts educate the imagination and develop originality. They teach students to discern, to express, to communicate, to analyze, to understand. They can be used as vehicles for enlivening and extending learning in general. They are one of the fundamental repositories of human wisdom. Fowler also examines some of the more controversial issues surrounding an arts curriculum, such as who should study the arts and which arts--and whose culture--should be taught. And he offers suggestions for reform and strategies for changing the schools, redefining the mission, and finding teachers. Here then is a cri de coeur written by one of America's leading advocates of arts education. It will provide parents and educators with compelling ammunition in the fight to keep art in our schools.