I wrote this article for The Minute Magazine. I thought it was appropriate at this time to post it on my blog.
BEWARE: Art Enlightens
I had my first moment of enlightenment before I was twelve.
My father was in the US Army and we lived on the outskirts of Paris, France. I was on a school field trip to the Louvre that would forever alter my self-awareness.
I was not a good student. Poor grades, bad attitude, anger issues-- you name it, I had it. And I had yet to come to understand what this art thing was.
When we entered the massive building with the huge staircase, we walked down a long hall that seemed to go on forever. We walked right up to a portrait of a woman. The sight of this painting stopped me in my tracks. It was the Mona Lisa. I was surprised at my reaction. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. I stood there in a trance while my classmates ventured on. I remember what my next thought was as if it were yesterday. At the tender age of eleven, something inside of me changed. I felt drawn to the genius of this creation. This piece of art seemed to have a special message for me. I remember thinking that I wanted to be a better human being. I wanted to be a part of this creative thought process.
I never forgot that day. And things did change for me. My grades improved, along with my desire for learning. The transformation had begun. Now, nearly fifty years later, I reflect on that time with a new appreciation and sadness. I realize how fortunate I was to have had that experience in the Louvre, and how unfortunate it is that very few children in my community will ever have that chance.
I’ve shared this story often with my students, not because I want them to grow up to be artists, but because I want them to grow up to be thinkers. I’ve spent the majority of my life trying to encourage, expose, teach and promote the arts. I quote studies, write letters, apply for grants, and go door to door. We need to bring the arts back into our schools, I say. With all the studies that show the value of an arts curriculum and emphasize how the arts play an important role in brain development of a child, I am constantly amazed that the message isn’t getting to the right people. The connection between art and creativity is often discounted, down-played, or out-right ignored. I’ve even come to wonder if there’s a conspiracy to dumb down our children. Our public school systems seems to be putting all of their emphasis on teaching children how to pass a test. We are simply teaching our school children ‘what’ to think, and not ‘how’ to think.
Studies show the role the arts play in critical thinking and problem solving, and it’s no wonder that our children are suffering from the lack of an art curriculum in our schools. Our high school dropout percentages are through the roof. According to the US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, by 1998 the average dropout rate nationwide for African American children between the ages of 16 and 24 was at 13.8%. Native Americans were at 11.8%. Now compare this statistic to Louisiana. According to the Louisiana Department of Education, in the 2005-2006 school year term, forty-five out of every one hundred African-American students that should have graduated did not graduate. Forty-two out of every one hundred Native American students living in Louisiana suffered the same fate.
I wonder who’s controlling the system. Who promotes this system that stifles creativity, that discourages individuality?
Jonathan Kozol, author of Amazing Grace: the Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation, explains it this way. “But for the children of the poorest people we're stripping the curriculum, removing the arts and music, and drilling the children into useful labor. We're not valuing a child for the time in which she actually is a child.”
I believe that we have become more interested in test scores than in incorporating a learning environment that stimulates creative thought. We rarely allow our children to ask “why?” Conformity has become the norm. Instead of unlocking the minds of our children, we’re limiting their brain development and we’re limiting their future prospects. While considering the future of our country and the many challenges our children and grandchildren will face, it is becoming obvious that we need creative thinkers. We need the kind of leadership that encourages intellectual growth.
I know first hand what the arts can do to not only improve a child’s self-image, I know what it can do to spark a child’s imagination, create a desire for learning, and open their mind to unlimited possibilities. Right now, we are simply teaching our children how to answer questions. Without a stimulating environment, it’s only a matter of time before even more of our children will become statistics. And I am not willing to stand back and watch it happen here in Louisiana.
I have been an advocate for the arts for more than half my life, and it hasn’t been easy. Most people don’t understand my drive and passion. Most people are still of the mindset that the arts are just some fluff stuff you give kids who can’t pass the test. Many have the mindset that art and music are not important, and they want their child to learn a “real” skill so they can get a “real” job.
I had a friend ask me one day why I fight so hard for the arts in a community that obviously does not embrace it. I thought about what Richard Riley, the former Secretary of Education once said. "I have long believed in the important role that music and the arts can play in helping students learn, achieve, and succeed. Education in theatre, dance and the visual arts is one of the most creative ways we have to find the gold that is buried just beneath the surface. They (children) have an enthusiasm for life, a spark of creativity and vivid imagination that need training that prepares them to become confident young men and women."
But I didn’t quote Riley in answer to my friend’s question. I told her the one thing that keeps me going, that gives me hope for the next generation of children in northern Louisiana—the possibility of a movement beginning that will save our children and bring creativity back to the forefront of the American educational system.
“I’ve got to keep fighting for the arts,” I say. “Because I’m waiting for the 100th monkey.”
------------------------------
THE STORY OF "The Hundredth Monkey" has recently become popular in our culture as a strategy for social change. Lyall Watson first told it in Lifetide (pp147- 148), but its most widely known version is the opening to the book The Hundredth Monkey, by Ken Keyes.
The story is based on research with monkeys on a northern Japanese Island, and its central idea is that when enough individuals in a population adopt a new idea or behavior, there occurs an ideological breakthrough that allows this new awareness to be communicated directly from mind to mind without the connection of external experience and then all individuals in the population spontaneously adopt it. "It may be that when enough of us hold something to be true, it becomes true for everyone."
The 100th Monkey
A story about social change.
By Ken Keyes Jr.
The Japanese monkey, Macaca Fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years.
In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkey liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.
An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.
This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists. Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable. Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.
Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes -- the exact number is not known. Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. Let's further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.
THEN IT HAPPENED! By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them. The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!
But notice: A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea...Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes.
Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.
Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people.
But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!
From the book "The Hundredth Monkey" by Ken Keyes, Jr.
The book is not copyrighted and the material may be reproduced in whole or in part.
BEWARE: Art Enlightens
I had my first moment of enlightenment before I was twelve.
My father was in the US Army and we lived on the outskirts of Paris, France. I was on a school field trip to the Louvre that would forever alter my self-awareness.
I was not a good student. Poor grades, bad attitude, anger issues-- you name it, I had it. And I had yet to come to understand what this art thing was.
When we entered the massive building with the huge staircase, we walked down a long hall that seemed to go on forever. We walked right up to a portrait of a woman. The sight of this painting stopped me in my tracks. It was the Mona Lisa. I was surprised at my reaction. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. I stood there in a trance while my classmates ventured on. I remember what my next thought was as if it were yesterday. At the tender age of eleven, something inside of me changed. I felt drawn to the genius of this creation. This piece of art seemed to have a special message for me. I remember thinking that I wanted to be a better human being. I wanted to be a part of this creative thought process.
I never forgot that day. And things did change for me. My grades improved, along with my desire for learning. The transformation had begun. Now, nearly fifty years later, I reflect on that time with a new appreciation and sadness. I realize how fortunate I was to have had that experience in the Louvre, and how unfortunate it is that very few children in my community will ever have that chance.
I’ve shared this story often with my students, not because I want them to grow up to be artists, but because I want them to grow up to be thinkers. I’ve spent the majority of my life trying to encourage, expose, teach and promote the arts. I quote studies, write letters, apply for grants, and go door to door. We need to bring the arts back into our schools, I say. With all the studies that show the value of an arts curriculum and emphasize how the arts play an important role in brain development of a child, I am constantly amazed that the message isn’t getting to the right people. The connection between art and creativity is often discounted, down-played, or out-right ignored. I’ve even come to wonder if there’s a conspiracy to dumb down our children. Our public school systems seems to be putting all of their emphasis on teaching children how to pass a test. We are simply teaching our school children ‘what’ to think, and not ‘how’ to think.
Studies show the role the arts play in critical thinking and problem solving, and it’s no wonder that our children are suffering from the lack of an art curriculum in our schools. Our high school dropout percentages are through the roof. According to the US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, by 1998 the average dropout rate nationwide for African American children between the ages of 16 and 24 was at 13.8%. Native Americans were at 11.8%. Now compare this statistic to Louisiana. According to the Louisiana Department of Education, in the 2005-2006 school year term, forty-five out of every one hundred African-American students that should have graduated did not graduate. Forty-two out of every one hundred Native American students living in Louisiana suffered the same fate.
I wonder who’s controlling the system. Who promotes this system that stifles creativity, that discourages individuality?
Jonathan Kozol, author of Amazing Grace: the Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation, explains it this way. “But for the children of the poorest people we're stripping the curriculum, removing the arts and music, and drilling the children into useful labor. We're not valuing a child for the time in which she actually is a child.”
I believe that we have become more interested in test scores than in incorporating a learning environment that stimulates creative thought. We rarely allow our children to ask “why?” Conformity has become the norm. Instead of unlocking the minds of our children, we’re limiting their brain development and we’re limiting their future prospects. While considering the future of our country and the many challenges our children and grandchildren will face, it is becoming obvious that we need creative thinkers. We need the kind of leadership that encourages intellectual growth.
I know first hand what the arts can do to not only improve a child’s self-image, I know what it can do to spark a child’s imagination, create a desire for learning, and open their mind to unlimited possibilities. Right now, we are simply teaching our children how to answer questions. Without a stimulating environment, it’s only a matter of time before even more of our children will become statistics. And I am not willing to stand back and watch it happen here in Louisiana.
I have been an advocate for the arts for more than half my life, and it hasn’t been easy. Most people don’t understand my drive and passion. Most people are still of the mindset that the arts are just some fluff stuff you give kids who can’t pass the test. Many have the mindset that art and music are not important, and they want their child to learn a “real” skill so they can get a “real” job.
I had a friend ask me one day why I fight so hard for the arts in a community that obviously does not embrace it. I thought about what Richard Riley, the former Secretary of Education once said. "I have long believed in the important role that music and the arts can play in helping students learn, achieve, and succeed. Education in theatre, dance and the visual arts is one of the most creative ways we have to find the gold that is buried just beneath the surface. They (children) have an enthusiasm for life, a spark of creativity and vivid imagination that need training that prepares them to become confident young men and women."
But I didn’t quote Riley in answer to my friend’s question. I told her the one thing that keeps me going, that gives me hope for the next generation of children in northern Louisiana—the possibility of a movement beginning that will save our children and bring creativity back to the forefront of the American educational system.
“I’ve got to keep fighting for the arts,” I say. “Because I’m waiting for the 100th monkey.”
------------------------------
THE STORY OF "The Hundredth Monkey" has recently become popular in our culture as a strategy for social change. Lyall Watson first told it in Lifetide (pp147- 148), but its most widely known version is the opening to the book The Hundredth Monkey, by Ken Keyes.
The story is based on research with monkeys on a northern Japanese Island, and its central idea is that when enough individuals in a population adopt a new idea or behavior, there occurs an ideological breakthrough that allows this new awareness to be communicated directly from mind to mind without the connection of external experience and then all individuals in the population spontaneously adopt it. "It may be that when enough of us hold something to be true, it becomes true for everyone."
The 100th Monkey
A story about social change.
By Ken Keyes Jr.
The Japanese monkey, Macaca Fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years.
In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkey liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.
An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.
This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists. Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable. Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.
Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes -- the exact number is not known. Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. Let's further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.
THEN IT HAPPENED! By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them. The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!
But notice: A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea...Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes.
Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.
Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people.
But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!
From the book "The Hundredth Monkey" by Ken Keyes, Jr.
The book is not copyrighted and the material may be reproduced in whole or in part.
I share your passion for arts in education, Chris, and the comments you share in this post are the reason why I have admired you for many years.
ReplyDeleteLOVE IT!
ReplyDelete