Page 4 of 51, showing 20 records out of 1018 total, starting on record 61, ending on 80

Early Indications

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

“If children grew up according to early indications, we would have nothing but geniuses.”

Knowledge vs. Wisdom

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

“Knowledge comes by taking things apart: analysis. But wisdom comes by putting things together.”

Practicing Good Humor

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

“Above all things, and at all times, practice yourself in good humor.”

A Band Unifies the Individual and the Collective

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

“Every well-rehearsed band unifies the individual and collective … All people can learn from this example.”

The Best Inspiration

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

“The best inspiration is not to outdo others, but to outdo ourselves.”

Sticking with Music Has Made a Difference for Me

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

“Through elementary school, I looked forward to the days when music class was being held. In middle school, I couldn't wait to start band. In high school, band and choir were my refuge from normal high school activities, like partying, that I chose not to participate in. By the opening of freshman year, I had made 200 friends from marching band camp. We learned to work together as one unit and how to respect people at different stages of the learning process. “Now in college, as a music business major, I can honestly say that without music my life would lack completion. How many people can say that they have stuck with something since the age 10? How many people remember marching in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, CA as a fifteen year old? How many people can say they performed Mozart's requiem in Carnegie Hall by 18? “Music is the only language we all truly can understand and communicate with. No other job or extracurricular activity could truly speak so deeply to my soul as music does. I hope, for my children, that music will always be a part of their life.”-Jordyn P., Washington

The Arts Teach Valuable Lessons

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

Several decades ago, the ability to play the piano was a requirement for becoming an elementary teacher in California. By the end of the twentieth century, however, the pendulum had swung in the opposite direction, and a singleminded focus on literacy and math skills had become the hallmark of good teaching. The arts have virtually been ignored.Tragically, the arts have been absent from the schools for so long that many teachers have little awareness of the enlivening, humanizing influence that an active arts program can exert on school and classroom culture. A decade into the twenty-first century, an increasing recognition exists that a test-driven focus on literacy and math has not resulted in the anticipated academic benefits. Student achievement has improved only marginally, while skills that are basic to the maintenance of a healthy democracy have received little attention. As Goldberg notes: "The arts and physical education...teach students much more than disciplinary content. They teach lessons that enable students to look at their world with a more complex lens by building critical thinking skills...and they engage students in learning how to play well together, to be team players, to be responsible, and to take risks." (2008)

Importance of Arts Education at Elementary Level

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

When students arrive in middle and high school with little arts experience or interest, secondary arts programs inevitably struggle.

The Arts Build Mutual Cooperation

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

Over time, children learn to maintain relationships of mutual cooperation. Gradually, they proceed from a primarily "external" view of classroom expectations and standards--cooperating because adults expect them to--to an "internalized" desire to perceive themselves as cooperative and helpful (Kochanska 2001; Thompson 2006). By developing a constellation of dispositions, children develop healthy social scripts and become more constructive group participants. The social-emotional development that children experience as a result of participating in high-quality arts programs in the classroom is therefore substantially greater than can be explained by simply noting the specific social skills learned.

The Arts and Social-Emotional Development

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

Of special interst for this study were the comments teachers made about the impact of arts activities on children's social-emotional development. For example, a first-grade teacher who had worked with a music teaching artist observed: "What was really amazing was that those kids who were very reserved and did not participate in other school things became totally involved. So it brought out a lot of very positive feeling."

Making Meaning through Music

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

“How we combine the power of musical sound and its interpretation through performance into work that speak to each of us is, for me, what making music is all about. In my own work as a composer, I try to build imaginary sound-worlds that resonate differently, with emotion and meaning, for everyone who hears them.”

Using the Arts to Create Healthy Social Scripts

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

Most of what children learn in schools is directed toward outward applications. Schools are judged by how effectively they convey information about the outside world to students. In contrast, artistic expression requires a person to turn his or her attention inward and become aware of responses that are usually automatized, such as perceptions and feelings, the movement of muscles, shifts in mood, and emotional responses to external events. For many students, participating in the arts is the first time that they have focused on such responses in a concentrated way or consciously decided what they would or would not pay attention to over the course of a day.

The Arts Develop Social Skills

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

Successful engagement in activities such as group singing, dancing, and dramatic play requires sharing, taking turns, and subordinating individual urges to the intentions of the group. While carrying out cooperative tasks, children learn initiative, leadership, and respect for others' ideas, as well as the reality that they cannot have their own way all of the time. Through such experiences, children learn how to get along with others and how to regulate themselves.

The Arts and Social Equity

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

For all children to have an equal chance of success in elementary school, educators must have the tools to help all students develop social-emotional competencies, which some children may not have had an opportunity to acquire before entering kindergarten. The arts provide an arena for fostering these competencies.

The Arts Mean Careers and Business

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

“Americans for the Arts reported in 2009 that nationally there are 612,095 businesses in the U.S. involved in the creation or distribution of the arts that employ 2.98 million people -- 4.3 percent of all businesses and 2.2 percent of all employees.”

What Chief Executives Really Want

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

“Against that backdrop of interconnection, interdependency, and complexity, business leaders around the world are declaring that success requires fresh thinking and continuous innovation at all levels of the organization.”

Creativity: Most Important Leadership Competency

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

“According to a new survey of 1,500 chief executives conducted by IBM's Institute for Business Value, CEOs identify 'creativity' as the most important leadership competency for the successful enterprise of the future.”

Teaching Is a Commitment

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

“The years of experience teaching as an early childhood, regular, and special education music teacher; college professor; and guest speaker, both here and abroad, have taught me that teaching is so much more than a profession.  Teaching is a commitment to the belief that each child is unique and completely whole, no matter what challenges the child faces.  Teaching is a commitment to the belief that each child is here to make a contribution with his or her life and that through music, children can communicate and gain skills for academic achievement and social, emotional, and psychological well-being.”

Oklahoma State Rep. Anastasia Pittman on Music Education

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

"Teaching students music helps them learn in other areas, including math and science, and helps them understand the value of discipline, said state Rep. Anastasia Pittman, D-Oklahoma City."

Florida Commissioner of Education on the Arts

Added: Jun 24, 2010 - View

The importance of the arts goes beyond just giving students a creative outlet, said Eric Smith, Florida's education commissioner. It provides students with a different way to think when they are adults."The world our kids will be inhabiting will be more than numbers and reading," Smith said Friday at the Florida Alliance for Arts Education Summit at Harrison School for the Arts.Smith said creativity, abstract thinking and coming up with ways to do things differently will be important in the coming decades for adults who want high-paying jobs.Smith said that intensive reading is not a "wildly successful initiative" and agreed that arts electives are important for a student's success."If our kids aren't innovators they will be struggling in the year 2050," Smith said. "The arts can be a part of that."