Dr. Daryl Ward

STE[A]Mrolled

Posted by Dr. Daryl Ward, Apr 20, 2016 0 comments


Dr. Daryl Ward

"I used language because I wanted to offer content that people - not necessarily art people - could understand." - Jenny Holzer

Some years ago I took a trip to Lisbon, Portugal. And ignorantly (and perhaps, arrogantly), I assumed my knowledge of the Spanish language would suffice for me to be able to communicate with the Lisbonites. I soon grew frustrated at my inability to communicate with the locals and when asked to describe my experience with Portuguese, I later said it was like trying to speak Spanish using French. 

Language is important.

One of the most important things we can teach students is when to use the right language at the right time. As arts advocates we need to remember this lesson as well. For example, it's no secret that we live in an age of assessment. Many stories, articles, and books have been written about America's obsession with quantification (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/fashion/the-united-states-of-metrics.html?_r=0) . However, a reflective assessment (used that word on purpose) of art history will reveal that art has always been about numbers. From the transactional nature of the patronage system to Da Vinci's Golden Mean to the number of likes on an artist's Instagram feed, art and artists have long been subject to measurement. The key is not rejecting the use of metrics as antithetical to art, but instead to understand how the languages of math/science are connected to the language of the arts and humanities.

Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than with the recent addition of an A to STEM education (http://blog.americansforthearts.org/2016/04/01/the-four-minutes-that-changed-stem-to-steam). STEAM has officially become mainstream (or mainSTEAM, if you prefer). I'll admit I have concerns with these developments - and it's not because I think that art education isn't worthy to included in the conversation—especially as it's related to equitable funding. It's actually because after 28+ years in education, I've seen many educational fads come and go and I simply don't want to trade the importance of art education for a few minutes of getting to eat at the grown-ups' table—never mind that it might include STEMware of the finest crystal.

That's why, as much as I have reservations about STEAM, I feel a moral imperative to learn its language—to articulate the connections between art education and every other type of education in such a way as to speak to the value of all learning. Like many of you, I've grown weary of feeling like I have to defend art education to those in power. This recent focus on STEAM offers legitimacy to what we've been saying for many years and I'm grateful that attention is finally being paid to what it means to offer a "well-rounded" education to our children. 

If we believe that arts truly are foundational to our society, then we have to engage our STEM brothers and sisters and teach them our language as well. Our conversations must be intelligible and productive so that all students benefit. This is why we have to speak the same language. After all, when the scientists finally get to the top of the mountain, the artists will need to be able to tell them where the water is ;-)

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