Commentary: Trust a president — art education matters

Art and education ought to be considered inseparable. After all, sound and therefore, music is understood at a theoretical level through mathematics. Further, numbers (and timing) become contextualized and relevant through an understanding of music.

Similarly, theater is a language-based form of art. Through the use of words, we come to understand emotion and human relationships. The same is true with regard to other linguistically based art forms, such as poetry and the novel. Through language, we make emotional connections and infuse them with meaning.

Dance, painting and sculpture each involve the mind/body connection while being expressions of personal creativity. Endeavors such as these provide a holistic and integrated approach to education.

In 1983, Harvard developmental psychologist Howard Gardner, in his book “Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences,” proposed nine different modalities of intelligence, including musical, linguistic, visual, logical, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic and existential. The ideal mode of teaching is what is known as “teaching-around-the-clock,” which suggests that all nine modalities of intelligence ought to be addressed within a given curriculum — that is, until the student becomes familiar with his or her own learning proclivities. At this point, self-education can be more easily facilitated in the pursuit of one’s own interests and inclinations.

As President John Adams once proclaimed: “I...study politics and war, that our sons may...study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons...study mathematics...philosophy, geography, natural history and...navigation, commerce and agriculture...to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, (and) statuary...”

It’s been two centuries since Adams’ pedagogical proclamation was made, yet it seems that politics and war have remained the major preoccupations of our nation. To paraphrase John Lennon, let’s give poetry a chance.

BEN MILES is a theater critic for the Beachcomber in Long Beach and recently retired as an instructor from the Art Institute of California — Orange County.