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The Anti-Art Education Stance

March 6, 2014 by Nicole Kirchner   

Imagine that you are a parent and, due to funding cuts, you have to choose whether your child will learn art or math in school.  Obviously, any sane parent would pick math.  If a child never learns addition, they will never be able to survive in society today.  If your child never learns to paint, though, they will be absolutely fine.  Maybe they will not have tapped into their creative sides, but at least they can add.  This is the basis of the anti-art in schools argument.  It comes down to necessity and welfare, rather than an argument of extra intelligential enrichment.  People who support the removal of art from schools do not necessarily oppose art.

confused-man1It is easy to assume that all anti-art in schools supporters are science or math people who go around bitterly claiming that art is pointless and does not make any sense.

Often, though, it can be quite the opposite, as anti-art education proponents at least acknowledge or support the arts but not in schools. Regardless of their opinions and debates over art, with funding cuts, it can, in extreme cases, come to picking between math and art, which automatically removes art, without the need for persuasion.  For example, Oklahoma, a state over $36 billion in debt, has no choice but to cut funding towards the arts. OklahomaLRG1 State Representative Josh Cockroft has recently written a bill to remove art funding, including a $4 million annual subsidy given to the Oklahoma Arts Council, stating, “The time has come to set priorities and to exercise spending discipline.”  The anti-art stance sees the economic burden of art education and the necessity of cutting back.

Those supporting the removal of art from schools often point at the prevalence of out-of-school art programs, which could be supplemented for in-school art classes.  This would be decided on a family-by-family basis and would give children the creative outlet that they would be lacking in school.  wyso-violins-of-philharmonia-orchestraAlso, for children who do not like standard art classes, i.e. painting and drawing, could take specialized art classes in graphic design, fashion, jewelry, etc.  Children who are not passionate about visual art could get involved in local theatres, orchestras, and band groups.

With these opportunities available outside of school, anti-art education proponents are pushing for more of a focus on technical and career based classes in schools.  In the Sacramento school system, in 2010, a bill was passed replacing art in schools with career training programs for their students.  The importance of job training, in the eyes of the anti-art education stance, far outweighs that of art education.  Nationally, the opposition to art education pushes for the addition of engineering and computer science classes in schools, in the place of art classes.  Although this would not be happening in schools facing extreme budget cuts, where everything but core subjects are cut, it is possible in many other school districts.

CareerJOBFAIR-kidsIn order to get these technology and career based programs implemented, anti-art proponents work to remove art courses on a school-by-school basis, at the national level, and everywhere in between.  The large size of the pro-art education movement, though, can limit the effectiveness of the anti-art arguments.  To gain a foothold in this debate, anti-art supporters often target pro-art education groups for their lack of solid research-based and statistical arguments for the arts.  They critique the primarily emotional and anecdotal claims, regarding the effects of the arts on children.

Although the anti-art stance is not having a large impact on the prevalence of art in schools, it is obvious that national and state debt is having a gigantic impact.  national-endowment-for-the-artsOn the national level, President Obama has restored funding to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) but has removed funding for Arts in Education, which awards grants for art teacher training.  Although funding has been renewed to the National Endowment for the Arts, the Heritage Foundation has criticized the NEA for lowering the quality of art in America, for supporting politically incorrect art, for wasting the funding allotted to them, and for failing to work towards their mission of enhancing cultural life in America.  Anti-art education proponents work to point out these flaws in pro-art organizations, in order to back their own stance.

Ultimately, even though anti-art proponents work to remove art from schools, often the economy has a more substantial impact on art education.  In some cases, proponents for the removal of art from schools have been influential in implementing technology-based programs in the place of art programs in schools.  Although their effectiveness varies, the anti-art education stance clearly plays a large part in this ongoing art education debate.

 

Sources:

http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.burba/education_budgets_for_art_education

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/07/arts-education-loses-again-in-sacramento-bill-emphasizing-technical-training-advances-in-senate-.html

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/24/entertainment/la-et-cm-bill-eliminate-oklahoma-arts-council-funding-20130124

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1997/04/bg1110-ten-good-reasons-to-eliminate-funding-for-the-nea


2 Comments »

  1. Jack Hatzell says:

    Although I am a terrible artist and can’t really do anything considered artsy, I understand its importance. I think that removing art from education would be a huge mistake. It is important to explore art because it uses a whole different part of your brain and gives you a chance to explore and be free. I hope to see art continue to be a part of mainstream education.

  2. Abby Koehler says:

    Great posts! Our posts seem to be kind of connected each week, which I think is awesome! I said this in my post: I think that schools should focus on making little cuts in all departments. Obviously schools are going to have to deal with budget cuts, but if you take a little from each area, no are has to be gone completely. I really like how you pointed out that children can get involved in the arts elsewhere! That’s also a great option. Although, I think for music, it’s a lot harder to find a community ensemble. Often times students can take lessons outside school, but their ensemble playing comes from school.

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