7/28/2019 2007 Essays

1/18

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

2/18

This is a world in which a very high level o preparation in reading, writ-

ing, speaking, mathematics, science, history, and the arts will be an indis-

pensable oundation or everything that comes ater or most members o

the workorce. It is a world in which comort with ideas and abstractionsis the passport to a good job, in which creativity and innovation are the

key to the good lie, in which high levels o educationa very diferent

kind o education than most o us have hadare going to be the only

security there is.

Tough Choices or Tough TimesA report rom the New Commission on the Skills

o the American Workorce, 2006

Americas workplace has changed. The 21st century busi-

ness environment is global and knowledge-based; ac-celerated advancements in technology have eectivelyensured that todays workplace is no longer limited bygeographic boundaries. Once the unquestioned econom-

ic superpower o the world, the United States is under in-creasing pressure to maintain its global competitiveness.

These challenges have been the subject o numerous re-

search reports and policy orums. Increasingly, workorcepreparedness is recognized by both business and educa-tion communities as a major actor or ensuring Americas

uture economic success. Many o these studies have also

indicated that this preparation demands a rethinking ohow schools are educating students to thrive in the work-place o the uture.

Business leaders increasingly acknowledge critical think-ing, creativity, and innovation as among the top appliedskills necessary or workers at all levels in all industries to

succeed in the new economy. Yet, our nations educationsystem remains geared more toward the 19th century in-dustrial economy rather than prepared to meet the chal-

lenges o lie and work in the 21st century.

Amid the growing consensus that business as usual canno longer be tolerated in our educational system is also

a budding recognition among policymakers that thearts may provide some solutions to the global competi-tive challenge. Many o the same reports that identiy thecrisis in education have also directly called or reinorc-

ing the role the arts play in developing 21st century skillsneeded in order or students to compete and succeed inthe new global economic environment. The Governors

Commission on the Arts in Education Findings and Recom-

mendations report (Education Commission on the States,

July 2006) ocused on the importance o arts education

to the development o a ourishing creative nationaeconomy, suggesting that the Creative Economy relies

upon people who can think creatively, adapt quickly tonew situations, and problem-solve. This industry, which is

growing at a aster pace than total U.S. business growthincreases the demand or workers with the skills that aregained through the arts in education.

With Americas economic edge at stake, how can we builda 21st century workorce that is both knowledgeable andcreative? What role can and will the arts play in ensuring

that America leads the world in innovation and ideas?

THE NATIONAL ARTS POLICY ROUNDTABLE

These questions ormed the basis or a series o discus

sions among 32 high-level leaders rom business, government, philanthropy, education, and the arts. These lead-ers gathered in October 2007 at the Sundance Preserve in

Utah or the second annual Americans or the Arts National Arts Policy Roundtable, Thinking Creatively and Competing Globally: The Role o the Arts in Building the 21st Century

American Workorce.

Established in 2006, the Roundtable is co-convened annually by Americans or the Arts President and CEO RobertL. Lynch and Chairman o the Sundance Preserve Robert

Redord. It provides a orum or national leaders to discussissues critical to the advancement o American cultureand recommend the public policies, private-sector prac

tices, and research needs that are necessary to move romthought to action.

The 2007 National Arts Policy Roundtable ocused on the

challenge o preparing students to enter the workorcewith the creativity and innovation skills that are essentiato ensuring that American business and culture will pros-

per. This topic emerged as one o the key recommenda-tions o the 2006 Roundtable, where participants elt thatthe arts could play a key role in Americas economic com-petitiveness.

THE AUTHORS

As part o the preparation or the 2007 Roundtable, Amer

icans or the Arts commissioned three original opinionessays rom internationally recognized experts. These es-says are intended to provoke new thinking, provide a big

Introduction

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

3/18

picture perspective, as well as to help stimulate ideas orrepositioning creativity and the arts as a cornerstone o

learning. The writers are leaders in the elds o education,business, and policy: Dr. Paul D. Houston, executive direc-tor o the American Association o School Administrators;Sir Ken Robinson, Ph.D., global consultant and expert in

the eld o creativity and innovation in business and edu-cation; and Hamsa Thota, Ph.D., chairman and presidento Product Development & Management Association.

First presented to members o the 2007 Roundtable, theseessays contribute to the ongoing national dialogue nowtaking place. We placed no restrictions on the authors in

addressing this topic. As such, the opinions expressed aresolely that o the authors, and do not necessarily reectthose o Americans or the Arts.

THE ESSAYS

Paul D. Houston, executive director o the American Asso-

ciation o School Administrators since 1994, approachesthe topic as a ormer teacher, administrator, author, andinternational consultant. In his essay, he takes a provoca-tive look at what we value as a nation and how it impactsthe way we approach education and how we dene the

role o the arts in society. His most current book, The Spiri-tual Dimension o Leadership: 8 Key Principles to Leading

More Efectively, co-authored with Stephen L. Sokolow,

was published in February 2006.

The essay by Hamsa Thota, Ph.D., approaches the topicpersonally, rom the standpoint o an innovation and new

product development expert whose personal creativejourney began in the rice elds o India. Just as scientistsexplore and seek understanding o the physical world,the artistic process allows individuals to explore their own

creative potential. Tapping into the creative potential oour children is as important as using any other naturalresource. The ormer vice president o research, devel-

opment, and commercialization or Rich Products Cor-poration, Dr. Thota holds 10 U.S. Patents and serves as amember o the U.S. National Innovation Initiative StrategyCouncil.

Ken Robinsons essay likens our current crisis in educationto the now widely recognized global climate crisis. Likethe canary in the mine shat, when the health o the arts

in schools declines, there are serious long-term conse-quences or the quality o individual lives, or the healtho communities, and or economic competitiveness and

sustainability. His recommendations challenge us as asector to rethink the strategies that are now needed to re-verse the status o the arts in our educational system. Asan internationally known expert in the eld o creativity

and innovation in business and education, Robinson consults with governments, major corporations, and cultura

organizations worldwide.

By choosing to ocus our attention on the role the artscan play in helping to build the 21st century workorce

in America at the 2007 National Arts Policy Roundtablewe join with the growing number o private- and public-sector voices concerned with whether our country is pre-pared to meet the challenges o a new global economy

These leaders are calling or a re-examination o how weprepare students to succeed, and indeed thrive, in theworkplace and society o the uture. We believe that the

arts are a key component o meeting this challenge.

We would like to express our gratitude to Davis Publica-tions, Inc. and The Ruth Lilly Fund o Americans or the

Arts or their support o the 2007 National Arts PolicyRoundtable.

Marete Wester

Director of Arts Policy

Americans for the Arts

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

4/18

One o my avorite songs is Amazing Grace. I love it or itsmeaning but also or the idea that grace is amazing and

makes such a sweet sound. It is a song that provides or-giveness, hope, and possibility: I once was lost, but now

am ound, was blind, but now I see. As I look at America,I see us blindly abandoning those things that made usgreat as a nation. We are living with a blindness today that

could cost us our uture. Our blind spots center on whatwe value as a nation and how we are approaching educa-tion and the place o the arts in American society. We arein need o some amazing grace.

I think that it is no accident that the word culture meansboth the arts collectively and the shared belies and val-

ues o a group. In most cultures, the arts rame the valuesand belies that exist in that culture. In Hawaii, there is noword or arts because they are at the center o everythingin the culture. In America, the arts are too oten dened as

rivolous add-ons or a product o what some pundits callHollywierd that is seen as a contaminant to our real cul-ture. Our culture is shaped by our language, our images,and what we pay attention to. And those people who we

raise to iconic status reect our shared values. A cultureis dened by those it adores. The real contaminant in ourculture today is what we choose to value and adore. To-

days American icons are business titans, sports stars, orpop idols. Our values seem to be built around wealth ac-cumulation, sports excellence, or ame (which also seemsto make one wealthy). We might remember that Tiger

Woods signed a multimillion-dollar contract with Nikebeore he had played one round as a proessional andMichael Jordans endorsements dwared his playing con-tracts. The Bible says that where your treasure is, there will

your heart be also. America has come to treasure itsel,and therein lies the problem.

Further, America has also become a place where pop cul-

ture tends to substitute or real culture. Recently we haveseen the nation xated on people who are amous orbeing amous. We are to a point where someone such as

Paris Hilton is covered breathlessly by the national mediasimply because she is amous. It has been reported thatlast year Paris made more than $7 million dollars just orbeing Paris. It is said that most o lie is just showing up

or Paris Hilton that can lead to big bucks.

Education is not immune rom the inuence o a culture

run amok. At the policy level, it is now widely reported

that Bill Gates is the most inuential person in educationreorm. Is this because o his broad knowledge and expe-

rience in education? No, it is because his oundation givesmillions o dollars away to inuence what happens in edu-cation. At the child level, our children are inuenced bywhat Paris and Britney wear, and or years they were told

they should want to be like Mike. While this is played outin school, the entire cultureincluding parents and themediais responsible. What our children are taught to

value tends to come rom the popular culture, and whatour schools emphasize tends to be shaped by the eco-nomic culture o our country. The result is that we havecollectively raised a generation o children who seem to

know the price o everything and the value o nothing. We

are reorming schoolsnot around the ideas that wouldcreate a more vibrant culture, but around economic im-peratives, and that could exact a great price on our u

ture.

Education has always had as a part o its mission the prep-

aration o generations equipped with the skills to provideeconomic sustenance or themselves and their amiliesOver the last several decades, education has increasinglybeen seen solely as the place students receive prepara-

tion or the workplace. In essence, schools have become

the arm system or corporate America and the holisticaspect o education has been overrun by concerns oAmericas place in the global marketplace. This has led to

a distortion o understanding about what is true and whatis important about education and how it is delivered.

At points over the last hal century, schools have been criticized or limiting America's ability to compete in the global marketplace. One can go back to the late 1950s whenthe Russians launched Sputnik and America was rocked

with recriminations and sel-examination. Americas all-ing behind in the space race was largely blamed on our

schools. There were panicked stories in the popular mediaabout what Ivan knows that Johnny doesnt, and there

was a urry o activity to improve Americas educationastanding. Money poured into schools or new programs inscience and or teacher preparation. When a mere decade

later America landed men on the moon and proved its ascendance in the space race once and or all, the schoolswere not given much credit or this achievementandthey probably shouldnt have received credit. American

schools were no more responsible or John Glenn andNeil Armstrongs accomplishments than they had been at

Creating a Whole New World:

Placing Arts and Education in the Center of the Flat Earth

By Dr. Paul D. Houston

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

5/18

ault because Russia launched a satellite beore the Unit-ed States had done so. Glenn and Armstrong, and most o

the olks at NASA, were products o American public edu-cation, but they had attended school when Johnny wassupposedly alling behind Ivan. Their space ights werethe result o American ingenuity and know-how and a

government that was ocused on a successul outcome.

In the 1980s, America was rocked by the Nation at Riskreport, which pointed out the ailings o American educa-

tion. The report argued that our lowered economic stand-ing against Japan and Germany was a result o a risingtide o mediocrity in our schools. The report suggested

we had unilaterally disarmed ourselves educationally andcalled or improved rigor. Again, less than a decade later,America had vanquished the economies o Japan andGermany, prevailed in the Cold War with Russia, and was

once again standing astride the globe as the preeminenteconomic and military power in the world. Once again,the schools were not credited with making this so and

once again, they should not have been. The educationsystem has always been a player in the nations economicsuccess by producing what was asked o it. In the 1950s itwas workers or the actories o the industrial revolution,

and in the 1980s it was more high-tech workers or theemerging inormation age. But Americas reversal in the1980s had as much to do with economic policy, the emer-gence o the hightech industries that America dominat-

ed at that time and government policies that supportedbusiness.

Today there is rising angst about the emergence o Chinaand India as world economies and there are ears thatthe United States is alling behind these economic be-hemoths. Once again, the schools are targeted as the

culprits o our supposed ailure to compete. And again,the pundits have it all wrong. Its not the schools, its theculture. There is much discussion about how schools inChina and India are superior to American schoolsbut

this panic is misplaced. The vast majority o children beingeducated in these countries are receiving a substandardeducation. Yet, China and India are turning out large num-

bers o young people who are disciplined and excellent

at linear, sequential work. America continues to turn outstudents who are individualistic. In act, the schools thathave consistently turned out a rather rambunctious, and

somewhat rebellious product in the way o children whohave a mind o their own and speak it at every opportuni-ty may well be creating the conditions or Americas con-tinued dominance on the world stage. But this will only be

true i America pulls back rom its current eorts at schoolreorm and reexamines what makes America what it hasalways been.

Todays threats do not come rom India and China butrom our own myopic and insular view o our own culture

There is a real danger in trying to compete head-to-headwith China and India numericallyor to do so rom an income standpoint. Put more simply, since those two coun-tries account or about three billion people, only about

10 percent would have to be engineers and scientists tocreate a scientic workorce that would match the entirepopulation o the United States. Further, given the relativesize o these countries compared to our own, they would

only need to educate 1015 percent o their population tohigh standards in order to engul us in skilled workers. Ouentire workorce cannot match this reality. It is the rule o

large numbersa small percentage o a large number isstill a large number. Further, their workers work or a raction o American wages. The uture o head-to-head com-petition with these countries does not look bright.

It would be instructive to look back to Sputnik and studyour response. Russia succeeded

early on by building bigger rock-ets. It was planning its moon ex-pedition around the assumptionthat it needed a huge rocket to

launch its moon lander, and al-most as huge a rocket to return.America created Apollo romthe concept o three ships: one

relatively larger ship to escapeEarths gravity, a smaller ship toorbit the moon and return the

astronauts to Earth, and a lander that would be let on themoon with a very small rocket to take the astronauts tothe circling orbiter. This made the return much easier be-cause the payloads were much lighter. It was a creative

and innovative approach created by NASA scientists thatallowed America to skip many o the steps Russia had totake. Innovation and creativity trumped brute size.

So our inability to compete with China and India on sizealone might not matter. I the attening Earthdescribedby Thomas Friedman in his The World Is Flatis part o the

problem, the conceptual economy described by Danie

Pink inA Whole New Mindmay well be the solution. Friedman brilliantly describes the challenge o a world wherejobs can be done anywhere in the world by people with

the right skills. Pink describes a world where that is truebut less important because the nature o work is changingPink points out that the jobs that can be done anywhereinvolve the skills o sequential, linear thinkingskills that

characterized leaders in the industrial age and workersin the inormation age. He suggests that i your job canbe done elsewhere cheaper or by a machine, (computers

are great at linear, sequential acts) then you are in trouble

Todays threatsdo not come

from India and

China but from

our own myopic

and insular view

of our own

culture.

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

6/18

But, i your work involves creative, innovative thinkingsuch as storytelling, design, or empathy, then you are in

good shape because your job cant easily be outsourced.He suggests that we are moving into a conceptual worldwhere these creative skills are most important.

The last century was called by many the American Cen-tury because o our domination in military and economicterms. But, as author Ben Wattenberg described it in The

First Universal Nation, our domination and the making o

the rst universal nation may well have had more to dowith our popular culture than anything else. He pointedout that it wasnt the electronic boxes that were being

produced in the Far East that were important, it was thesotware, the movies, and the music that went into themthat created culture. This has been brought home to meas I have seen children in the remote Amazon rainorest

wearing Michael Jordans number 23 t-shirt, and I oncehad a very lively discussion with a group o Maori childrenin New Zealand about the plot lines on the evening soap

opera Melrose Place. The universal images that the worldwatches and the sounds they listen to most oten ema-nate rom American shores. Yes, in World War II our militarymight have liberated Paris, but it may be Paris Hilton who

is winning the current war or world inuence. For betteror worse, American popular culture trumps all others.

Americas real power is not in our engineering but in our

imagineering, a phrase created by the olks at Disney.Disney also gave us the song A Whole New World romthe movie Aladdin. The reality is that America has been

producing the world anew or some time through ourpopular culture and our economic power. It is now time torecognize that our uture economic power will come romthe culture we create and that will come rom what our

schools produce. And our success is much less dependentupon the skills our children have than upon our childrensability to see the world through resh eyes. The uture willbe shaped by those who see through new eyes and who

can imagine new things. For that to happen, schools willneed to be reed up rom the coercive policies that havebeen promoted, in part, by big business, so that students

can nd their own voices and visions.

One o the many ironies o our current discussions abouteducation is that money is not seen to have anything to

do with the quality o education, even though educationis seen as the path to more money or individuals and astronger economy or the nation. When it is brought up,educators are told that money doesnt matterthis in a

culture where money is the only thing that matters, wherebrilliance is equated with checkbook size, and where iconicstatus is achieved through the power o the purse. It is also

ironic that the current ears o our education quality are

ramed through economicswe cant compete globallywithout better educated workers. So, it would appear that

the only place money is not important is in the educationo our young.

This shows up in international competition. While the

United States has cut taxes that go to support educationboth at the ederal and state levels, other countries inthe world are increasing their investments in educationFor example, China has increased spending on colleges

and universities tenold in the past decade. We have alsoslowed our investment in research and development atthe very time other countries have accelerated theirs. We

currently rank seventh in the world in percentage o GDPdevoted to research. But money isnt the only issue.

In a piece written or Newsweekmagazine in January 2006

Fareed Zakaria interviewed the minister o education oSingapore. Zakaria pointed out that while the students inSingapore outperorm the students in the United States

on tests, years later the American students are much moresuccessul in the world o workparticularly as inventorsand entrepreneurs. The minister explained that both coun-tries have meritocraciesin Singapore it is based on test-

ing and in the United States it is based on talent. He wenturther to explain that what makes a student successuin innovative behaviorsuch as creativity, curiosity, or asense o adventureis not on tests and is not tested or

This is where America has an edge. The minister went onto mention that Singapore must learn rom Americas cul-ture o learning, which challenges conventional wisdom

even to the point o challenging authority.

While Singapore is trying to copy what we do best, weare trying to copy Singapore in the one place that will not

give us an economic edgethe culture o testing. Wherewe might want to copy Singapore is in their treatment oteachers. In Singapore, beginning teachers make morethan beginning doctors, lawyers, and engineers. When

questioned this on a visit there, I was reminded that youwould not have doctors, lawyers, or engineers withoutteachers. And yet, any chance we might have to compete

internationally in education hinges on our teachers abil-

ity to educate our children eectively and creatively.

The greatest irony is that at a time when America needs

its creativity and ingenuity the most to compete with theenormous scale o our competitors, we have chosen to, asA Nation at Risk warned us against 30 years ago, unilat-erally disarm ourselves. We are reshaping our educationa

system to look more like Singapore, with more emphasison a culture o testing, and less on a culture o cultureThe very things that make America uniquely American

our innovative spirit and our creative expressionare

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

7/18

being pushed out o our schools in avor o a narrowedcurriculum built around norm-reerenced, high-stakes

tests. Schools are now sometimes rewarded, but mostlypunished, or their perormance on multiple-choice tests,the least creative and innovative activity ound in schools.And because the stakes are so high, (schools that dont

meet testing standards risk being labeled as ailing andrisk losing control o resources and students) other activi-ties are being shed. So courses such as art, music, and cre-ative writing are less valued and less taught.

America is currently caught up in a renzy o test-basedreorm, designed ostensibly to benet those who have

been let behind by our culture. The problem is that theauthoritarian model, which emphasizes the achievemento the let brain, is doomed to ail with many children. Andthis ailure will not be because they do not test well, or

there is every indication that when emphasis is put ontests, the scores rise. Just ask Singapore. Those who pro-mote this kind o reorm are ond o pointing out that that

whatever gets tested gets taught. Yes, it does. And whatis not tested gets let behind. The real test will be acedwhen we ask whether this increase in scores will lead toincreased success or students.

The test and tremble model o school reorm that is thecurrent craze, which values a narrow measure over broad-er success, is unlikely to move us toward a more concep-

tual, creative society. And we are not likely to capture theimagination or the talents o those who have been letbehind i we stay on the present course.

There is no question that a signicant portion o Americaschildren are not perorming to world-class standards. Thisis mostly because America is not perorming to world-

class standards in dealing with the social issues thatplague many children and their amilies. Children whowere born to mothers who lacked adequate prenatal care,who received inadequate medical preventive attention,

and who received no or substandard preschool programscome to school already let behind. It is difcult or theschool to catch them upparticularly when the school it-

sel is located in a community that cannot raise adequate

resources to compete with other schools in middle-classneighborhoods.

American educational practice revolves around a decitmodel where students shortcomings are identied andremediated. However, all students come to school withboth decits and assets. Since motivation is a critical part

o the educational process, it is difcult to use a decit ap-proach to motivate. Constant ailure tends to lead to de-spair and not a belie in possibilities. Cognitive scientists

remind us that ear inhibits cognitive processes and yet

we are trying to make children and schools smarter bythreatening them and scaring them to death.

The poor children in America bring many assets to schoowith them every day. And these assets are oten in areasthat would bring greater success to America in the globa

marketplace. I you look at one o the creative cultural gitsAmerica has given the world, such as music, you wouldidentiy genres like jazz, blues, bluegrass, country, rockR&B, and hip-hop, to cite a ew. What do all these orms

have in common? They all came rom a part o our soci-ety that had been let behind. The children on the NativeAmerican reservations in the Southwest may not perorm

at grade level, but i they are tasked with assignments todesign, (one o Pinks basic skills in the conceptual world)they are highly procient. Basketball players in the ghet-tos o our inner cities might not know what the concept o

systems thinking is,but i put on a basket-ball court, they know

where 10 people aremoving through timeand space, how to an-ticipate their move-

ments, and can createelegant responses tothemthe essenceo a systems-think-

ing approach. Class-rooms ull o immi-grant children might

have trouble meetingthe goal o AdequateYearly Progress set by No Child Let Behind, but thosesame children code shit, culture shit, and language shit

multiple times during the daysomething most middle-class Americans cannot do in this increasingly diverseglobal world. Creativity is oten ound at the margins oa societythat is where ideas and imaginations are ree

to roam. We need to spend less time on identiying whatchildren do not know and more time celebrating whatthey do know. We need to nd ways to build upon these

strengths to help them learn what else they may need to

be successul in their own lives and be productive citizensor the world.

When I was growing up, I was one o those students whohated math and science. I would not t well into the atworld. And the truth is, I wasnt that much happier aboutsocial studies and literature. It was years later, when

became superintendent o schools in Princeton, NJahothouse or theoretical mathematics and quantumphysicsthat I learned that what I had learned in schoo

about math and science had the same relationship to rea

Creativity is often found

at the margins of a

societythat is where

ideas and imaginations

are free to roam. We need

to spend less time on

identifying what children

do not know and more

time celebrating what

they do know.

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

8/18

math and science as a log has to a blueberry. Math isntabout mastering rules and memorizing times tables, it is

about nding the elegance in a well-stated problem. Andscience isnt about learning periodic tables and ormulas,it is about exploring the mysteries o the universe. And so-cial studies isnt about trying to remember when, where,

and whoit is about better understanding the humancondition. And literature is not about probing plot linesor grammatical niceties, it is really about understandingourselves. Learning must be about elegance, mystery, and

probing our inner universe. And the best way to approacha lot o this is through the arts.

The great cellist Pablo Casals once remarked that eachsecond we live is a new and unique moment in the uni-verse, a moment that never was beore and will never be

again. And what do we teach our children in school? Weteach them that two and two make our and that Paris is

the capital o France. We should also teach them what theyare. He reminds us that each child is unique and capableo anythingo becoming another Beethoven, Michelan-gelo, or Shakespeare. That they are all marvels and that it

is our task is to make the world worthy o its children.

The culture o a culture drives it orward and denes itwith each generation. The culture o modern America

creates our pre-eminence in the economic environmentbecause o our unique cultural gits. Many o those gitsemanate rom the parts o our society that are seen as

less than and who need, more than any other part, toreceive every advantage that we can give themto makethe world worthy o thembecause it is their gits thatwill ultimately lead us home.

Dr. Paul D. Houston has served as executive director o the American Association oSchool Administrators since 1994.

Dr. Houston has established himsel as one o the leading spokespersons or Americanpublic education through his extensive U.S. and international speaking engagements

published articles, and media interviews.

Prior to joining AASA, Dr. Houston was superintendent o schools in three uniquely di-erent public education systems: Princeton, NJ; Tucson, AZ; and Riverside, CA. His K12

education experience also includes serving as an assistant superintendent in Birming-ham, AL, and as a teacher and building administrator in North Carolina and New JerseyHe has also had the pleasure o serving in an adjunct capacity or the University o NorthCarolina, Harvard University, Brigham Young University, and Princeton University.

Dr. Houston completed his bachelors degree at The Ohio State University and received his masters degree at the Uni

versity o North Carolina. In 1973, he earned a doctorate o education rom Harvard University.

Dr. Houston has published more than 200 articles in proessional journals. He co-authored the books Exploding theMyths, (1993); The Board-Savvy Superintendent, (2002); and The Spiritual Dimension o Leadership: 8 Key Principles to Lead

ing More Efectivelywith Stephen L. Sokolow, (2006). His columns have been collected and published in his books, Articles o Faith & Hope or Public Education (1996) and Outlook and Perspectives on American Education (2003). Houston isco-editor or a series o books on the Soul o Leadership with Corwin Press. The rst books in the series, Engaging EveryLearnerand Out-o-the-Box Leadership were published in 2007.

Houston is committed to advocacy or public education and the children it serves.

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

9/18

Few would disagree with the proposition that thekey to American competitiveness in the 21st century

lies in the education o our children. But to what end?I believe that as we seek to reshape the competitivelandscape o this Age o Global Innovation in which

we live, the single most important thing we can do ispurposeully nurture the innate potential o our chil-dren to become explorers in lie.

That brings us directly to the role o the arts. Art, likescience, is a discovery process. Just as scientists ex-plore and seek understanding o the physical world,the artistic process allows individuals to explore their

own creative potential. Tapping into the creativepotential o our children is as important an achieve-ment as using any other natural resource. Its valuelies in a uture return on increased expression o cre-ative abilities o our children in their daily lives. Buta medium is necessary or a childs inner truths tobecome a product. Children need to be introducedto dierent artistic modes in order to be expressiveand attain a uency in expressing their spirit, just as

they become procient with a new language. I wehope to awaken the re in the collective Americanbelly, our children need to mature into adults whoknow what they are capable o achieving, and knowhow to make inormed choices as they pursue theirversions o the American dream. These are skills thatcant be measured merely by increases in scores onstandardized tests. Relying solely on methods o vo-cational education and only giving children tools or

routine productive processes is a dereliction o ourduty to develop the creative and competitive spirit othe next generation o Americas workorce.

WHY AMERICAN COMPETITIVENESS

NEEDS THE ARTS

Art Teaches the Competencies o Creativity

The artistic process is a creative process that requiresortitude and perseverance. The discipline the artsrequire is a largely untapped learning resource orschools and workplaces alike. The arts as part o theacademic curriculum teach children the personal sat-

isaction and ownership that arise rom their physicaeorts to create a product o their own imagination

while giving them invaluable practice wrestling withrustration productively and tenaciously. For similarreasons, developing creative skills in the arts is jusas important in the workplaceespecially or thoseindustries, such as manuacturing and services, whomust continually introduce creativity and innovationinto their processes in order to remain competitive.

Most schools view the arts as essentially leisure activ

ities, because they believe that arts education lacksthe rigor ound in math and science curricula. This

overlooks the tremendous potential or creating anurturing educational environment in which artisticendeavors become a training ground or childrensemotional development. The creative eort neededto transorm an abstract insight into a product inthe physical world is inevitably a painul process o

trial-and-error and sel-discovery. Whether it is anengineers design and construction o bridges andactories or an artists sculpture, each product retainsa ragment o the individual who created it and is atestament to the maniestation o that creators inneworld. Providing opportunities or children to inter-nalize the creative process and to develop acility increative production builds the vital competenciesthat America needs to cultivate purposeully or the

21st century workorce.

Art Provides Tools to Help Innovators Transcend the

Limits o the Known

Redening artistic pursuits as the practice o com-

petencies in creativity applied in a productive pro-cess invites art into the realm normally reserved o

science. In his 2005 American Scientist article, Technology and the Humanities: How do insights rom CP. Snow's lecture on the two cultures reect on thepractice o engineering? Henry Petroski asserts thain engineering, it is not so much science as it is ingenuity that is applied to solve problems and satisyneeds and wants.

The Arts & Creativity in Education:

Keys to American Economic Competitiveness in the 21st Century

Hamsa Thota, Ph.D.

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

10/18

He describes how the Wright Brothers, when acedwith the limits o scientic investigation and knowl-edge then available, turned to ingenuity and inven-tionwhich allowed them to transcend the limits o

the engineering practices o their time. Petroski statesthat even more so than science, engineering is akinto writing or painting, in that it is a creative endeavorthat begins in the mind's eye and proceeds into new

rontiers o thought and action, where it does not somuch nd as make new things. In the absence o sci-ence, engineering calls on the creative competenciestaught by and expressed in the arts. Can we accept

this denition o engineering? Absolutely! I believethat with the acceptance o such a denition, engi-neering and the sciences in general become a ormo artistic expression. I so, shouldnt we think aboutthe artistic education 21st century engineers need tosucceed?

ENGAGING THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY

The Challenge

The expression o creative competencies in businessproblem solving, once the exclusive domain o execu-tives, is now required throughout the workorce. Andin todays world, an educational process that devel-ops a creative workorce is not a luxury but a neces-sity. Since Americas global competitiveness hangs inthe balance, the business community is a natural allyto the cause o creativity, and consequently, the arts.

I maintain that business leaders are overlooking anopportunity or competitive growth by not demand-ing that the American education system deliver aworkorce with competencies in both creative andproductive processes. But the act is, or the mostpart, they are not. Why? Perhaps it is because todaysbusiness leaders are products o an educational sys-tem that exclusively emphasized the utility value o

productive processes and largely ignored the enrich-ing potential o creative processes. You dont know

what you dont know rings true here.

Art (in) Education = Creativity (in) Business:

Making the Case

The question thereore becomes how do we ener-gize the business community to champion arts edu-

cation in order to develop a creative (and thereorecompetitive) workorce or the 21st century? I be-lieve that the key is to change the way business lead-

ers view the arts, and that will only come when twothings happen.

First, we need to give business leaders opportuni

ties to experience how the arts, in a learning contextbuild competency and mastery o the creative process. Through my collaboration with the Americansor the Arts program Creativity Connection, I have

been able to introduce arts-based creativity programs into a variety o business environments. ThusIve had the opportunity to experience rst hand theability o art-making to spark innovation by trans-

orming routine productive processes into creativeprocesses. I have seen quantitatively oriented, highlyskeptical colleagues come away rom these sessionsas true believers who recognize the relevance o artseducation to their work as engineers and innovatorsI am convinced that most business leaderswho

are, ater all, under pressure to deliver the kinds ooutcomes that require creativity at all levels o theiorganizationswill react similarly when they have

the opportunity to directly participate in the artisticprocess itsel. Nothing less will do, or I believe thatin this matter, there is no substitute or hands-on experiential learning. I we view the business community as a consumer base, a tested and true methodor bringing innovation to the marketplace is to givethese customers the opportunity to experience theenrichment potential o the creative process, through

the medium o artistic expression. Once these leaders see the personal and organizational value o unlocking their own creative potential through artisticprocesses and experiences, we can expect them tochampion the role o the arts as a learning tool, in theworkplace as well as in schools.

Second, we also need to develop ways to speak tobusiness leaders in the language o measurable out-

comes. While the creative process is qualitative byits very nature, there is no reason to assume that thecapacity o certain kinds o tools to measure and tooster the emergence o the creative process in bothchildren and adult learners can not be better. Throughbetter research and measurement, the argument ocreativity is more convincing rom the perspective oproductive process-oriented business leaders.

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

11/18

SUMMARY: TWIN OPPORTUNITIES

The challenge we have beore us is twoold: 1) how totransorm current American education system; and

2) how to educate Americas business leaders in thepractice o creative competencies. The concepts oart as leisure and education or vocation are rem-nants o a bygone era that emphasized mastery o

productive process while undervaluing the creativeprocess. A undamental means to eectively trans-orm the American education system is by enrichingit with new curricula ocused on developing creativ-

ity. For this to happen, strong support rom the busi-ness community is required. The best way to engagebusiness is to target and coach individual businessleaders on how to apply the creative process in theirown businesses. Business leaders who achieve suc-cess by practicing competencies in creativity will be-

come champions o a new mindsetone that valueseducating our children in both the creative and pro-

Dr. Hamsa Thota is an internationally recognized innovation expert with more than 20years o leadership experience in new product development, innovation managementand executive leadership. Dr. Thota ounded Innovation Business Development, Inc. in

2000 to assist clients with the manuacture and sale o innovative products.

Dr. Thotas experience on amily-owned rice elds in India, taught him early on that the

value o harvest is dependent on the ecosystem within which product is harvested andmarketed. He also learned that value extraction depends on how the producer positionsitsel within the value chain. Later in the United States, he applied his learnings to in-novate and commercialize more than 200 ood products as vice president o research,

development, and commercialzation or Rich Products corporation.

Dr. Thota played a key role in transorming the Product Development and Management

Association (PDMA) into a global organization during 20002007 serving as member o its board, vice president oconerences, president, and chairman o the board. He chaired and co-chaired several prestigious PDMA conerenceson product development and innovation management in China, India, and the United States, and he successully cham-pioned the ormation o PDMA China in 2007 and PDMA India in 2006. He is a member o the U.S. National Innovation

Initiative Strategy Council and contributes to U.S. Council on Competitiveness dialogue on innovation metrics and theuture o U.S. manuacturing. He also serves on the advisory councils o Creativity Connection, Americans or the Artsand Billion Minds Foundation.

Dr. Thota is active in several proessional associations and serves on the Proessional Development Panel o the American Association o Cereal Chemists, Food Saety and Health subcommittee o Georgia Food Pack, and as Counselor othe Marketing and Management Division o the Institute o Food Technologists. He gives guest lectures on product

development and innovation management at the University o Georgia and the Georgia Institute o Technology and is aSenior Fellow at the Kellogg Innovation Network, Northwestern University. He is a lie member o Sigma Xi, The ScienticResearch Society.

ductive processes. Ultimately, successul applicationo the creative process at the individual level will collectively pave the way or large-scale practice o creative competencies at the organizational level. This

then, is a mission critical initiative or the arts eldto become co-creator o unassailable American competitiveness in the 21st century.

Acknowledgement

I acknowledge my daughter, Devi Thota, or her helpin developing a ramework and co-creation o ideas

or this essay.

References

Petroski, Henry (2005). Technology and the Humani-ties: How do insights rom C. P. Snow's lecture on the

two cultures reect on the practice o engineering?,American Scientist, July/August, 2005.

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

12/18

The Arts and Education: Changing Track

Sir Ken Robinson

The premise o the Americans or the Arts National ArtsPolicy Roundtable is that the arts have a undamental rolein promoting the creativity and innovation on which the

United States increasingly depends. The paradox is that atthe very time when the arts should be ascendant in pub-lic policy and especially in education, they are actually indecline. This is a much bigger issue than it may seem, and

it calls or some radical rethinking in the arts and in educa-tion.

Early in 2006, I spoke at the Ted conerence in Monterey,

CA. One o the other speakers was Al Gore. He gave his talkon the climate crisis that became the Oscar-winning docu-mentary,An Inconvenient Truth. I assume that most people

with any sense now accept that there is a genuine crisis inthe earths resources; that it is potentially catastrophic; andthat the way that weve been behaving as a species or thepast 300 years has probably got something to do with it.

One climate crisis is probably enough or most people. ButI believe that there is another climate crisis, o which mostpeople are even less aware. It is exactly analogous to the cli-mate crisis in the natural world, and its consequences are

just as serious. This is a crisis o human resources.

We are all born with tremendous capacities, but our sys-

tems o education and work squander many o our best

talents and those o our children. Fixing all o this isnt justabout improving the quality o the arts; but like the canaryin the mineshat, the health o the arts in schools is a good

sign o the overall atmosphere in education that studentsare breathing every day. When the arts in schools are sick,there are serious long-term consequences or the qual-ity o individual lives, or the health o communities, and

or economic competitiveness and sustainability. Why isthisand what should be done?

A growing library o books and reports all conrm that theworld is enguled in an economic revolution and that theUnited States is as vulnerable to it as everyone else. Thisrevolution is being driven by two main orces: technology

and demography.

The rst is technology. Inormation technologies in par-

ticular are transorming the economic and cultural land-scape aster and more prooundly than many peopleseem to grasp. Digital culture has been described as therst genuine generation gap since rock and roll, and I

think it is. Children and teenagers are living now in a di-erent world rom their parents. They network, communi-

cate, and create online in ways that many adults dont really understand and oten ear. The next ve, 10, 20 yearswill see even more proound changes that may divide ou

children technologically rom their children.

Were all impressed by the huge advances in computingpower in the last 50 years and doubtless walk with an ex-

tra spring in our step i weve bought an iPhone. But thereal revolution in inormation systems has yet to hit us. Imtold that the most powerul computer on earth currentlyhas the processing power o the brain o a cricket. In the

near uture, the most powerul computers will have theprocessing power o a six-month-old human child. At thatpoint, we will cross an historic threshold: computers wil

then be capable o learning.

I asked a prominent computer designer what that meansHe said it means that they will be able to rewrite their own

operating systems in the light o their experiences. Thenext step could be a merging o inormation systems withhuman consciousness. Hows that going to eel? It maysound improbable, but 30 years ago the only person with

anything approaching an iPhone was Captain Kirk.

The second main driver is demography. In the last 200

years, the population o the earth has risen rom one bil-

lion to six billion. Hal o that growth has been in the last30 years. Most o it is not in the established industrializedeconomies but in Asia, the Middle East, and the so-called

emergent economies. The birthrate within the traditionapopulations o Western Europe, the United States, and Ja-pan is mostly declining. The growth in those populationsis mainly through patterns o migration. The population o

the United States just passed the 300 million mark, mainlyas a result o migration rom South America. The Asianand Hispanic economies in the United States are growing

now at a aster rate than the U.S. economy as a whole.

In every way, technological innovations and demograph-ic changes are interacting in ways that make the present

tumultuous and the uture unknowable. The economicchallenge everywhere is to maintain competitiveness andprosperity in a world where the nature o work, the sources

o wealth, and the supply o labor are being transormedweek by week. The challenge to the United States is notjust the availability o cheap manual labor in other partso the world. The United States is competing with highly

educated and skilled intellectual labor, which is also lessexpensive at the moment.

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

13/18

It would be wrong to think that these skills are only linearand routine and that other regions are creative deserts

they are not. There is huge creative talent in and movingtoward China and India. There are major economic chal-lenges emerging in Russia, the Middle East, and otherparts o Southeast Asia and South America. There is no

doubt that the United States and Western Europe have anenormous, historic advantage in creativity and innovationover many other parts o the world. But the gap is closingevery day.

This global revolution is not only economic: it is also cul-tural. We are living in a world o explosive population

growth, o unprecedented social mobility, and o instantaccess to inormation and ideas. All o this is raising pro-ound questions o identity, values, and purposes. Global-ization is usually thought o as a process o homogeniza-

tion, and in many ways things are becoming more alikewherever you go: a Starbucks on every corner, the samehotel chains in every city give or take the room service

menu, the same ast-ood stores and iconic clotheslines.But all o this is a little deceptive.

There is also a powerul counter-trend toward localiza-

tiontoward the reassertion o national, regional, and lo-cal identities. As globalization gathers speed, questions ocultural identity are resurgent everywhere. The French arein no rush to stop being French. For the rst time in mod-

ern history, the United Kingdom is arranged in regionalassemblies. And the Americans arent giving up on beingAmerican. Instead, we all exist, like Russian dolls, in in-

creasingly complex cultural layers. These issues o identityare potentially corrosive, as were seeing continually in theMiddle East and in other deep-seated regional conictsand in Western responses to them.

One o the great ironies is that we are now more connect-ed technologically with other cultures than at any othertime in human history, but there seems to be little gain

in cultural tolerance and understanding. The issues areurgent. I were to have a chance o economic sustainabil-ity and cultural stabilityas nations and as a species

we have to address how we use and care or the earths

natural resources. We also have to think dierently aboutourselves and each other and make much better use oour human resources. In particular, we have to ocus on

developing the abilities we now need most o all: imagi-nation, creativity, and innovation.

I think o creativity as the process o having original ideas

that have value. There are many misconceptions aboutcreativity. One is that only special people are creative. Itisnt true. We are all born with tremendous creative ca-

pacities. What is true is that relatively ew people seem to

discover and cultivate them ully. A second misconception is that creativity is about special things, like the arts

This isnt true either. Creativity is possible in every area ohuman activity. Some o the most creative people I knoware scientists and mathematicians. What is true is that theprocesses o creativity have common eatures in every

eld. Some o the most creative ideas come rom dynamicinteractions between dierent ways o thinking. There isa lot o art in science and lot o science in art. Creativityis about making connections. One o the most important

connections we have to make is to see that economic andcultural growth and sustainability are intimately related.

The third misconception is that youre either creative oyoure not and theres not much that can be done aboutit. The act is that a huge amount can be done to cultivatecreative abilities. Its to do with providing the right condi-

tions or growth. Providing these conditions is one o themain challenges or educa-tion and or arts policy. Our

current systems o educa-tion do not provide theseconditions and they werenever intended to. They

were designed in the 18thand 19th centuries primar-ily to meet the needs othe industrial revolution. In

almost every way they areout o step with the tech-nological and economic

imperatives o the 21stcentury.

The real problem that conronts the arts in education lies

in the dominant assumptions about the purposes andnature o education that are rooted in industrialism andin the intellectual traditions o the Enlightenment. Oneillustration is the hierarchy o subjects in schools, which

is being reinorced by the current programs o reorm. Atthe top are languages, math, and sciences; then come thehumanities; and at the bottom, the arts.

There are two reasons or this hierarchy. The rst is economic. There is an assumption that math, languages, andsciences are more important or national economic de-

velopment than the arts. The second reason is culturalThere is an assumption that education is really about de-veloping academic ability and that the arts are not reallyacademic. For both reasons, the arts suer when budgets

tighten and when conversation turns into economic com-petitiveness.

Creativity is about

making connections.One of the most im-

portant connections

we have to make is

to see that economic

and cultural growth

and sustainability are

intimately related.

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

14/18

The most signicant national reorm program in U.S. edu-cation is the No Child Let Behind Act (NCLB), and its e-

ects on the arts are a powerul example o the problemwe ace. NCLB was introduced to address issues o eco-nomic competition by raising standards in public educa-tion. The jury is still out on the benets and achievements

o NCLB. From the point o view o the arts in schools, theimpact has oten been negative.

One report claims that more than 70 percent o schools

have cut back or eliminated arts programs entirely as thedirect result o NCLB. I doubt that earnest politicians sat insmoke-lled rooms in Congress plotting the end o paint-

ing in schools. The collapse o the arts may not have beenintended, but it was inevitable.

It happens because policymakers are ocused on promot-

ing standards in the subjects they think are more impor-tant, especially languages, math, and sciences. The artsarent victims o a deliberate assault, but o collateral dam-

age. NCLB recognizes that math and literacy levels in theUnited States are too low. The assumed remedy is to ocusalmost exclusively on them and to push other disciplinesto the margins, including the arts. This is an example o

a mindset in public policy that is oten sel-deeating.I think o this as the septic ocus. This is the tendency inmedicine to look at a problem in isolation rom the con-text that produces it: to treat symptoms and not causes. It

isnt working, and it isnt a surprise to anyone who knowsabout learning.

I doubt that many young people leap out o bed in themorning wondering what they can do today to raise theirstates reading scores. Learning is a personal process: tosucceed in any task, learners have to be motivated and

engaged. Raising reading and math scores means excit-ing and motivating students to want to do better in thesethings, not just punishing them i they dont. It means en-gaging their passions and imaginations, not numbing their

minds. This calls or a rich curriculum, not a honed-downone.

Despite all the major reorm programs o recent years,

many o which have marginalized the arts, the needle onational educational achievement in the United Stateshas hardly moved at all. The United States still aces high

drop-out rates, low graduation rates, high teacher turn-over, low proessional morale, and low international stan-dards o education. The truth is that the current systemdoesnt need to be improved; it has to be transormed.

No country can hope to prosper in the uture simply by do-ing better what they did in the past. We need to think andact dierently. The real value o the arts is not in making

marginal improvements on the peripheries o the existing

system o education, but in transorming the heart o itTo achieve this transormation, we have to do something

more than argue the case or the arts against the sciencesor math, or literacy. We have to see the issues whole andmake common cause with others who are trying to movein the same direction. We have to connect with overarch-

ing ideas and principles that unite those who see the needor educational transormation. Creativity is one o thoseideas and so is culture.

The arts and arts education have undamental roles toplay in helping the United States to engage with the eco-nomic and cultural challenges it aces. The rst is personal

Conventional education ocuses on developing particularorms o academic ability. The arts illustrate the tremen-dous richness and diversity o human intelligence andthat there is much more to the human ability than a nar-

row academic curriculum recognizes. A balanced educa-tion gives equal weightto the arts, the sciences,

math, and the humani-ties, and recognizes themany ways in which theycan eed into and enrich

each other.

The second broad roleis cultural. As the world

becomes increasinglyconnected and interde-pendent, it is essential to

nurture a deeper sense o cultural understanding and tol-erance. The arts in all o their orms are at the very heart othe cultural identity o every human community. Learningabout the arts is the surest way to understand our own

and other peoples cultural values and sensibilities, and tounderstand the true nature o diversity.

It doesnt do to assume that we all know what we mean

by the arts, or that we mean the same thing. I asked whatthe arts are, people oten recite a list o art orms: musictheater, visual arts, dance, and literature. Lists like this

look innocent, but they can be dangerous. Some cultura

groups dont think o the arts in this way at all, and thosethat do usually have a hierarchy in mind: classical musicbeore jazz, or jazz beore blues; ballet beore the tango

contemporary beore salsa; painting beore movies. Theact is that a denitive list o arts orms would exhaust thememory o Wikipedia and a ull debate about their relative value would exhaust us all. The arts are undamen-

tal orms o human expression and communication. Theorms they take are as diverse as human imagination andthey are dynamic. The popular arts o one generation may

become the high arts o another.

Learning about the

arts is the surest wayto understand our own

and other peoples

cultural values and

sensibilities, and to

understand the true

nature of diversity

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

15/18

The third role is economic. A vibrant, innovative economycertainly needs great scientists, technologists, and mathe-

maticians and it needs a literate workorce. It needs a highproportion o all o these to be adaptable to change andinnovative in creating new opportunities or employmentand sustainable growth. But a strong economy needs

much more: it needs writers and artists, perormers anddesigners o every sort energizing the culture and breath-ing inspiration into daily lie. In a strong creative culture allo these processes aect each other and raise the whole

tide o aspiration and achievement.

Eecting this transormation in the arts and education

means thinking and acting dierently. First, it needs a the-ory o change. Its sometimes assumed that the changeor the arts in education has to come rom the top in newsorts o public policy. That certainly helps, and continued

advocacy is essential. In moving orward, I believe it is es-sential to broaden the debate and make common causewith others who are moving in similar directions and have

common interests in change.

The arts are not alone in eeling marginalized. The ma-jor science and technology organizations in the United

States are also deeply worried that their disciplines are indecline, and that they are not being taught in ways thatacilitate passion and innovation. They are deeply anxiousabout levels o student enrolment in science programs

in colleges and o ederal unding and support. There ismuch to be gained rom sharing insights and concernswith these and other proessional groups and in pressing

or common purposes rather than sectional interests.

Its also essential to engage major businesses in the con-versation. One o the current ironies is that the pressures

in schools that are constraining creativity and a broadcurriculum are being promoted in the alleged interestso improving economic competitivenessthat is, to helpbusiness prosper. In my experience, business leaders are

deeply concerned that students coming through the sys-tem, including college graduates, are lacking the veryqualities that businesses most need: the ability to think

creatively, to communicate well, and work in teams. These

are exactly what strong arts programs help to promote.

Much o my own work with corporations is about how to

revive the creative abilities that so many people have losttouch with, partly as a result o how they were educated.The real interests o business in the global economy mustbe brought into the conversation about the real contribu-

tions o the arts in education. The argument or the artsis not only economic. But there is an economic argumentand it has to have the support o the corporate sector.

The advocacy case has to be strengthened wherever possible with stronger and better inormation about current

and shiting patterns o provision or the arts in educationMore data is needed on whats going on or not going onand where, as well as what specic steps should be takento improve provision.

Advocacy is important, but its not enough. Real changecomes rom the ground up, and that means encouragingand empowering practitioners to persist and improve. Its

essential to gather and support models o good practiceEducation is a personal process, and good programs arealways unique because o the people and places involved

But there are important common principles inherent inbest practices and these need to be unearthed, illustrat-ed, and promulgated.

The action has to start soon. There are many state governors who are urgently seeking new strategies and so-lutions in education. A series o pilot programs could be

established in a consortium o states working togetherThese programs could explore how the arts can be usedwithin whole school reorm initiatives to improve stu-dents motivation and achievement and to enrich the cul-

ture and environment o schools. A strategic alliance ostates and other agencies could have immense inuenceon the national climate in education.

The overall quality o arts education has to be improvedThere are great programs and expert teachers throughouthe United States. But the cumulative eect o cuts in arts

programs in schools means that the numbers o teacherswith strong arts skills coming through the system are indecline. Its vital to tackle the issues o teacher educationand proessional development. Its also essential to tap

into the vast reservoir o creative expertise and passionin Americas huge community o proessional artists oall sorts. A consortium o conservatoires and arts schoolscould help to shape a new proession o teaching artists

Working alongside teachers, they could help to transormthe quality o arts education or uture generations o stu-dents.

Educators o all sorts need to embrace our young peoplesintuitive relationships with inormation technologiesDigital platorms provide enormous opportunities to sup-

port arts learning across the country. A national initiativeto explore how best to do this would have immense benets or teachers, artists, and students alike.

In the end, this is all about changing the climate in educa-tion and in the workplace to make better use o the hu-man resources on which the economic and cultural devel

opment o the United States actually depends. This can

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

16/18

start now and small changes can make a big dierence. Inthis respect, human resources are like natural resources.

Its about providing the right conditions or growth. I wedo, the growth will come. It always does.

Death Valley is one o the hottest and driest on earth. In

the summer, temperatures can reach over 50 degrees cen-tigrade, and in an average year theres less than two incheso rainall. Not much seems to live in Death Valley, hence itsname. But 2004 was not an average year. In the winter o

20042005, something remarkable happened. It rainedalot. In three months, more than eight inches o rain ell onthe valley. Thats more than our times the average and the

most rain to all on Death Valley since records began morethan 90 years ago. In some parts o the valley the rainscaused oods, mayhem, and destruction. They washedout roads and bridges. But the rains brought more than

destruction to Death Valley; they brought lie too.

In the spring o 2004, the normally parched oor o Death

Valley was covered by a lush carpet o vibrant wildow-ers. All over the valley, a dazzling diversity o plants andowers sprang rom the sand, rom the cracks in the rocks,and rom the desolate interiors o old carcasses. The display

was so startling that people traveled across America to seesomething they might never see again. Death Valley wasalive. The blush o owers showed that Death Valley wasnt

Sir Ken Robinson is an internationally recognized leader in the development o creativity

innovation, and human resources. Now based in Los Angeles, he has worked with national governments in Europe and Asia, with international agencies, Fortune 500 companies

and nonprot corporations. Robinson has worked with some the worlds leading culturaorganizations, including including the Royal Shakespeare Company, Sir Paul McCartneys

Liverpool Institute or Perorming Arts, the Royal Ballet, the Hong Kong Academy or Perorming Arts, the European Commission, UNESCO, the Council o Europe, the J. Paul GettyTrust, and the Education Commission o the States. He was proessor o education at the

University o Warwick in England or 10 years and is now proessor emeritus.

In 1998, Robinson led a national commission on creativity, education, and the economyor the U.K. government, bringing together leading business people, scientists, artists

and educators. His report, All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education was pub-lished to huge acclaim. The London Times said: This report raises some o the most important issues acing business in

the 21st century. It should have every CEO and human resources director thumping the table and demanding action.He was the central gure in developing a strategy or creative and economic development as part o the peace process

in Northern Ireland, working with the ministers or training, education enterprise, and culture. The resulting blueprintor change, Unlocking Creativity, was adopted by politicians o all parties and by business, education, and cultural leaders across the province.

He speaks to audiences throughout the world on the creative challenges acing business and education in the newglobal economies. His latest book, Out o Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative, is described by Directormagazine as a trulymind opening analysis o why we dont get the best out o people at a time o punishing change. John Cleese said, Ken

Robinson writes brilliantly about the dierent ways in which creativity is undervalued and ignored in Western cultureand especially in our educational systems. In 2005, he was named as one o Time/Fortune/CNNs Principal Voices. In

2003, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II or services to the arts.

dead ater all. It had been asleep. The potential or lie wasthere all along. The seeds had been dormant in the arid

ground or decades. All they needed were the right condi-tions to grow and ourish. For several weeks they did andthen the sun reclaimed the valley and the vitality o theplants sank beneath the ground where they lay dormant

until the next time.

There are immense creative resources lying dormant inour students and in our organizations: in schools, colleg-

es, public institutions, and companies. The current climateo high-stakes assessment, narrow orms o accountabilityand rigid conormity is suppressing the very qualities it is

intended to promote. The two climate crises we ace areintimately related. Dealing with them will need all our cre-ative resources. Jonas Salk once said that i all the insectswere to disappear rom the Earth, within 50 years all orms

o lie would end. But i all human beings were to disap-pear, within 50 years all other orms o lie would ourishHuman imagination and ingenuity has brought us all to a

perilous place, because as a species we have not thoughtwidely enough about the consequences o what we doThe only way orward is to harness our most distinctivecapacities as human beings: imagination, empathy, and

creativity. These are what the arts are about, and werisk more than we imagine when we cut them rom ourschools and our lives.

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

17/18

7/28/2019 2007 Essays

18/18

Washington, DC Ofce

New York City Ofce