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The Leonard Lopate Show

Arts Education in NYC Public Schools

Thursday, February 21, 2008

When funding for public schools is cut, arts education is usually the first to go. Richard Kessler of The Center for Arts Education and Councilmember Robert Jackson talk about the state of arts education in NYC’s public school system.


Comments

  • [1] nancy from NYC February 21, 2008 - 12:56PM

    As a designer, I've seen commercial artists' rates plummet over the past 30 years and wonder if that phenomenon relates to the nationwide cuts in arts education. People hiring are unfamiliar with the process and the amount of skill and training that good designing requires.
  • [2] Mimi S. Daitz from Manhattan February 21, 2008 - 01:23PM

    With respect to your segment on arts education I'd like to make comments on two different issues:

    1. New Yorkers rarely have good things to say about Texas, but I, as a professional musician and college level music educator, can point to the outstanding arts education in that state. Texas student groups regularly perform at the highest level in national music conferences. And they don't just have a few selective schools--I'm told it is system-wide.

    2. The comment from one of your guests that many principals do not understand the value of the arts in education really hit home. In Sept. 2006, at PS 189 Man., a piano was removed from a kindergarden schoolroom where it had been used every day by the teacher. She was a professional musician, with an MA in early childhood education, who knew how to integrate the arts into the many subjects she taught--and was loved by parents and children.

This thread is closed.


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