Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 13, 1994 TAG: 9404130096
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Seeking a deeper understanding of the idea, a recent report calls on Roanoke Valley's arts and cultural organizations to put more emphasis on "pluralism" - "pluralism" instead of "diversity," says "Blueprint 2000," so as to connote a "dynamic atmosphere of collaboration" among all segments of the valley's populace rather than mere recognition that different segments exist.
The point can be honed even sharper, though "Blueprint 2000" does not quite do so explicitly. The arts themselves represent an important kind of pluralism - not of ethnicity or gender, but of different perspectives in how to see and think about the world around us. In the end, that's the strongest argument of all for making the arts an integral part of public education.
The document does speak to the latter issue, noting serious gaps in the cultural education of the valley's young people.
Roanoke's cultural community offers many outreach programs to schoolchildren, "Blueprint 2000" reports, but they are mainly for younger students rather than adolescents. Even among the former, access to the programs is uneven. And when education money is scarce, cultural activities tend to be high on the list for school cutbacks; similarly, when funds are tight for arts and cultural organizations, outreach programs that produce little revenue are high on their cutback lists, too.
One bells-and-whistles - literally - idea recommended by "Blueprint 2000" for further study is a "culture train": a van, bus or trolley to go to malls, fairs and schools to promote arts activities in the region. Among other ideas is bundling various outreach activities into one comprehensive package, to make it easier for the schools to use outreach programs systematically.
Good thoughts both, but the difficulty goes beyond p.r. and packaging. Schools themselves must get more serious about arts education.
The Science Museum of Western Virginia has a relatively strong educational program, enough so that "Blueprint 2000" at one point notes the museum's willingness to advise other organizations wishing to strengthen theirs. The efforts of the museum itself no doubt have contributed to its unusually close relationship with the schools, and its born-of-experience advice could prove valuable to visual- and performing-arts groups that would like to build similar ties.
But another factor, we suspect, also plays in the equation: Science is widely regarded by the American public as a necessary ingredient of basic education, while the arts are often viewed as enrichment frills that are nice but hardly essential.
If so, the public is right about science, wrong about the arts. Each is basic; each enhances the other.
Good science is good art, prizing creativity in theory and elegance in solutions. Good art is good science, structuring the stuff of experience - light, shapes, sounds, words, movement - into hypothetical statements to be tested against the world as it is (or seems to be).
From a study of both comes an understanding of the glories and limits of each, and from a study of both comes the kind of critical thinking that makes good citizens of even those who will make their professional careers in neither science nor the arts.
A critical part of critical thinking is the ability to view things from different perspectives - a pluralistic outlook if you will. Arts education is for more than ensuring the survival of the arts, worthy as that goal is. It is also for ensuring the survival of civilization, science included.
by CNB