{"id":169,"date":"2014-07-07T15:57:18","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T19:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/onmymind\/?p=169"},"modified":"2014-07-08T09:16:22","modified_gmt":"2014-07-08T13:16:22","slug":"expanding-arts-education-in-new-york-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/onmymind\/2014\/07\/07\/expanding-arts-education-in-new-york-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Expanding Arts Education in New York City"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City got some excellent news the other day when Mayor De Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer announced that as part of the new fiscal budget, $23 million will be spent to expand arts education in the city\u2019s schools<\/a>. This news follows a report issued by Comptroller Stringer in April which found that many of the city\u2019s public schools offer no education in the arts; that 20 percent had no arts teachers\u2014and that the shortage is particularly stark in low-income areas.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this is nothing new: for years, the arts have been treated as a step-child in our country\u2019s primary and secondary schools, and as a life-long educator, I find this heart-breaking. Over the years, first as a student, then as a professor, advisor, mentor, and administrator in New York\u2019s public higher education system, I have witnessed first-hand the transformative power of education. And it is especially here at FIT, that I see\u2014almost daily\u2014talented, passionately motivated, and creative students determined to learn and to turn their dreams into reality. However, I think that few of our students\u2014however bright and gifted\u2014could have reached FIT\u2019s doors without the kind of educational background that provides sustained encouragement, training, and exposure to the arts. As Dana Gioia, the former NEA chairman, once said, \u201cAdult life begins in a child\u2019s imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

I myself recall the influence that my school\u2019s art appreciation classes\u2013and even piano lessons\u2013had on me as a child. And yet today, education in the arts is considered, as Mr. Stringer said, \u201cexpendable.\u201d Federal testing mandates and plummeting public funds notwithstanding, many people\u2014even educators\u2014think of the arts as add-ons: hobbies, fun extracurricular activities, but certainly not pivotal to a child\u2019s education.<\/p>\n

They are wrong. As studies show again and again that youngsters who participate in the arts on a steady basis for just one year are far more likely to achieve academically in every area from math and science to writing. Their attendance records soar; they read for pleasure nearly twice as much as their peers and become far more likely to participate in community service. Some may grow up to become artists or designers, as many of our students do,\u00a0but all of them are indelibly enriched and undoubtedly become more complete human beings.<\/p>\n

That is why I believe we are fortunate to have leaders in New York who understand the necessity of arts education in our schools and are willing to invest in it. I hope their efforts encourage others across the country to do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York City got some excellent news the other day when Mayor De Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer announced that as part of the new fiscal budget, $23 million will be spent to expand arts education in the city\u2019s schools. This news follows a report issued by Comptroller Stringer in April which found that many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":436,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9545],"tags":[35543,16257,35544,18706,30,15832],"class_list":["post-169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-arts","tag-curriculum","tag-education-2","tag-new-york-city","tag-students","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ycDS-2J","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/onmymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/onmymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/onmymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/onmymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/436"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/onmymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/onmymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/onmymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/onmymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/onmymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}