ARTS ARE INDISPENSABLE IN SCHOOLS, REPORT SAYS

Kids tootle flutes, strum guitars, and even clown around--for credit--in the name of arts in the schoolhouse.

The same for the study of dance, sculpting, painting and a lot of other subjects with light-sounding names.

Is such fare meaty--or is it a frill that can be snipped as school boards look for ways to redirect dollars into such courses as computers?

Leave these programs intact, says a report entitled “Performing Together: the Arts and Education.” It is a joint product of the American Assn. of School Administrators and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Alliance for Arts Education.

The theme:

The arts belong in our schools because they are serious subjects, not frills. Everyone--administrators, teachers, parents and students--must treat them that way.

“The arts are an indispensable part of education,” says Richard Miller, executive director of the association. “They enrich our lives in many ways, and it would be an uninteresting world without the arts.”

Jack Kukuk, director of the Kennedy Center’s Education Program, said “Performing Together” offers the opportunity for parents, concerned citizens and school administrators to work cooperatively to improve arts education in school districts across the nation.

Why should they?

The experts say the future of the nation depends on ability of people to create--and to be creative.

The report states that arts courses:

--Enhance students’ creative thinking skills; teach a different form of discipline; heighten student awareness of human civilization; provide students with innovative methods of communication.

--Help students learn all other subjects.

--Teach an understanding of human civilization.

--Help develop artistic judgment.

“The arts are a basic form of human communication--like the words that make up a language or the symbols that make up mathematics,” the report says.

How People Interact

“The arts provide an important way to teach students how people interact with each other. For some students, the arts provide an outlet for thoughts, emotions or aspirations they cannot express in any other way.”

A pioneering modern dancer, Isadora Duncan, once said: “If I could tell you what I mean, there would be no point in dancing.”

And Albert Einstein once reflected that “the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”

“Studying the arts gives all students that gift,” the report says.

“When they study drama, they can become someone else, if only for a few minutes.

“When they create a painting, they can see the world with fresh eyes. Research has shown that students who study the arts are also more likely to display originality and creativity in other subjects.”

(“Performing Together: the Arts and Education” costs $1.50. Write to AASA, 1801 N. Moore St., Arlington, Va. 22209-9988. Lower prices for bulk orders.)