Teaching Art As Core Subject

Last night I attended a school board candidates forum on the arts hosted by a local arts commission. My general impression is that some candidates had more personal experience in the arts than others, all were willing to listen to reasons to support the arts, and given the reality of the system resources, if elected, even defining and implementing short term arts goals would be a challenge none of them seemed confident that they could meet without exerting a lot of sweat equity. Some expressed caution about not wanting to focus on the arts at the expense of core subjects. My question is: why aren't the arts considered to be core subject matter? One reason, I assume, is that when discussing the arts, people focus on the affective, experiential, expressive, social and humanistic aspects of art. I believe that a more effective case for arguing the arts as a core subject in an academic setting would be to discuss the cognitive modalities learned and exercised when students begin to "think like artists" and how these thinking models aren't used in the learning of other subject matter, and yet vital to learn if we want to preserve the brain trust of our country into the next generation. This is one small illustration of students being forced to "think like artists". The cliche, "necessity is the mother of invention" is a basic principle in art making on an individual level, and in the development of the history of art. There is plenty of literature on inventing tools and how it relates to intelligence even to the point that using something in a way it isn't designed to be used is used as a measurement of intelligence on some IQ tests. Problems present themselves during in the execution of art and using what is at hand to create solutions to the problems force young art students to be inventive: learn solutions for problems by inventing the solutions at the moment the solutions are needed. Inventive thinking is a treasure in itself and can have unlimited applications in many subject areas. An example: When building a large cement/mosaic sculpture with a group of grade school students, gravity presented a problem for them. Heavy pieces of glass started sliding down the side of the form before the mortar had a chance to become firm enough to allow them to grip. I intentionally allowed that situation to occur in order to give the students an opportunity to think of ways to solve the problems presented by material weight and gravity. The first warning that there was a problem came from the students who had placed lighter pieces below the heavy ones and were upset that the avalanche of heavy ones was washing away their work. They said, "hey watch it, you're wrecking my pieces". I intervened at that point to ask them to step back and look at what was happening. We then talked about what we could do to "fix the problem". Three solutions were suggested and we used all three of them successfully and simultaneously on different parts of the sculpture. The suggestions to solve the problem were 1) mix a thicker mortar to paste behind the heavier pieces because a thicker mortar might bind better than a thinner one, 2) Eliminate the problem of heavy pieces sliding by only using light ones in areas affected by gravity 3) "inventing a tool to solve the problem!" Some students suggested placing the sculpture in the corner of the room. Use the walls for resistance. Turn chairs upside down against the corner walls and place the sculpture between them. Put sheets of stiff cardboard over the sliding areas to create pressure, holding them in place using the upside down chair legs until the mortar set. The students used chair legs as "flying buttresses" to support the sculpture "wall"!!! That "inventing a tool" solution to the problem was a product of their own thinking. This article "Creativity and the design of tools, and more tools and more tools" http://interactionculture.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/creativity-and-the-design-of-tools-and-more-tools-and-more-tools/ is from the official blog of the Indiana University School of Informatics 1590: Interaction Culture. The article itself provides a great argument for why children and teens should "sketch and sketch and sketch, and draw and draw and draw". If nothing else, arts as a core subject in grade school and high school will ultimately give students a foundation which will enhance their opportunity for acceptance to an intellectually challenging graduate program in computer or any other type of design.