Our children need arts education

Ebony, June, 2008 by Nnenna Freelon

My mother was born in 1928 in the rural South. She was a naturally talented, gifted child who loved the arts, yet she never attended a concert, museum or a public library during her childhood. She was an adult before she had the opportunity to engage the arts, yet she knew instinctively that a truly educated person needed opportunities to appreciate and participate in the arts. Education was stressed in our home, and for my mother, education included and emphasized the arts and culture. Today for entirely different reasons, our children arc being denied opportunities to experience the arts in our public schools. During my tenure as the national spokesperson for Partners in Education, I have visited hundreds of classrooms and witnessed firsthand the decline in music, theater, dance and arts programs. Often I am called upon to provide the only arts exposure for children whose music programs have been cut.

Among my earliest memories is of being in preschool, when I was 3 or 4, at Lesley-Ellis School in Cambridge, Mass., and the teacher played us Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky. I was totally mesmerized and transported into another world. I closed my eyes and twirled around the room. When I opened my eyes, everybody was looking at me. I've never forgotten that experience, and I think that was the point that signaled I would have a life and career filled with music. Throughout childhood I was exposed to the arts--school chorus, band, art classes, opportunities to play violin and piano. I will never forget a field trip to the Boston Pops when in the fourth grade. When I was in about the sixth grade, my English teacher played Nancy Wilson in the background while we took exams. I recall being anxious about a test on diagramming sentences and how calm I was after Nancy began to sing. These early influences made a difference in my life and sparked a lifelong love of the arts. I believe they shaped my desire to be a jazz singer and performing artist.

The arts foster a school environment that encourages self-directed learning, discipline, collaboration and acceptance. Children who are at risk for failure often find the arts a last refuge where they can begin to experience success. The arts open students' hearts and minds, and studies show that the arts actually enhance student success in math, language and science. Participation in the arts develops positive life skills that spill over in many ways. Sometimes teachers and administrators have to choose between arts and core subjects. The reality is that a quality education must include exposure to the arts. Participation in the arts allows us to discover and nurture strengths in students that would otherwise lie dormant or be channeled into negative behaviors. The arts open doors to self-discovery.

The arts elevate the educational experience and encourage the development of life skills, including discipline, creative problem-solving, analytical thinking, compassion, listening skills and tolerance among others.

Where will the solutions to file problems of the 21st century come from? Who will be empowered to think across disciplines mid come up with creative ways to confront social issues? They just might be the hands now engaged in learning to play an instrument, feet placed in first position, hearts engaged in learning their lines and fingers learning to paint. These are not the children who engage in violent, destructive behaviors. We must ask for more of the fixings that foster growth, development mid love. We must ask for more art.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

--Nnenna Freelon is a recording artist who has earned six Grammy Awards.