In the March 2009 edition of "Art Education," journal of the National Art Education Association, Elliot Eisner's article based on The Lowenfeld Lecture, describes ways that the arts bring education to life. Before reading this article, I thought about how I would answer the question, which then led me to think about the importance of art educators being able to thoughtfully answer questions like this one.
We've all known the importance of knowing our own philosophy of education, specifically art education, but times are changing. It used to be important to be able to "sell yourself." Now its important to help sell our field. We all know why its important, but can we articulate that message to school administrators, the community, and legislators? I want this blog to help you.
To sum it up, Eisner lists "eight ideas embedded in artistic practice that are relevant for the improvement of education." Education can learn from the arts that:
1. form and content cannot be separated. How something is said or done shapes the content of experience.
2. everything interacts; there is no content without form, and no form without content.
3. nuance matters. To the extent to which teaching is an art, attention to nuance is critical.
4. that surprise is not to be seen as an intruder in the process of inquiry but as a part of the rewards one reaps when working artistically.
5. slowing down perception is the most promising way to see what is actually there.
6. the limits of language are not the limits of cognition. We know more than we can tell.
7. somatic experience is one of the most important indicators that someone has gotten it right.
8. open ended tasks permit the exercise of imagination, and the exercise of imagination is one of the most important of human aptitudes. It is imagination, not necessity, that is the mother of invention.
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