Washing Dust From the Soul

“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” - Pablo Picasso

We are in the midst of a prolonged dust storm in America.  Daily life brings reports of yet another shooting, a pandemic surge on the horizon, emotional fatigue from a year of isolation, the threat of domestic terrorism and more.

It may not be constantly apparent, but this dust gathers on children as surely as it does on adults.  Anxiety is in the air that we all breathe.  At a time when we most need art to cleanse our souls, it is less available.  Especially for children.

The media teems with reports of great concern among policy makers, politicians and parents about the toll the pandemic is taking on children, particularly in education.  I’ve read scores of reports about scores.  The Secretary of Education insists that we proceed with national testing.  Summer remediation is prescribed, particularly for poor children of color.

Nowhere in this cascade of concerns will you find the words “art,” “music,” “theater,” “dance,” “painting,” or “beauty.”  

For more than 20 years the arts in the aggregate have been marginalized or excised in most public schools.  As education has been increasingly driven by economics - called the dismal science for a reason - there is no time for beauty, dreaming and imagination.  It’s all about the damn scores.  Reading scores, math scores, district scores, state scores . . . if it can’t be counted it doesn’t count.  Where arts programs do manage to hang on by a thread, they are categorized as “enrichment” or “extracurricular.”   

There are hundreds of studies used to justify arts programs in public schools, especially those in neglected communities.  Studies show that arts programs decrease absenteeism, improve scores in the “important” disciplines and are associated with greater “success” in life, always measured by earning power.  I dislike these justifications, even if they are accurate.  They are the wrong reasons for supporting the right things.  By focusing on these collateral benefits we tacitly stipulate that the arts are not - or less - needed if such benefits can’t be demonstrated.

I have similar disdain for arguments that use economic justification for good environmental practices.   “Be environmentally responsible and your profits will grow!!!”  This has been the dominant policy argument for decades.  It is also the wrong reason for doing the right things.  It is wrong because the logical corollary is that you needn’t bother with environmental responsibility if it turns out to be unprofitable. 

I could - I have in essays and a book - write thousands of words making the psychological and neurobiological case for the pragmatic benefits of the arts.  Music is the precursor to language and facilitates reading.  Music and mathematics are inextricably connected.  I’ve seen essays constructed through dance.  Visual arts have strong, positive cognitive, emotional, social, collaborative, and neurological effects.  

These justifications are relevant and necessary.  All learning is comprised of sensory experiences.  The arts engage the senses in multiple and comprehensive ways.  Music involves simultaneous expression and perception.  Playing in a band, orchestra or small ensemble lights up brain activity like a fireworks display.  A theater program develops empathy, expands the students’ repertoire of human relationships, facilitates an understanding of history, builds confidence, increases reading and verbal skills and demands highly refined collaboration.  

All of the things that are buzzwords in education are developed and enhanced through the arts:  accessing and honoring multiple intelligences and learning styles; developing teamwork skills; requiring discipline; using and strengthening emotional intelligence; sharpening critical capacities; exercising fine motor skills.  All of these skills and abilities translate to other academic areas and to life.  Contemplate how few of these qualities are engaged or advanced through preparation for and taking of standardized exams.

But while these justifications are relevant, they too are not sufficient.

Humans live in a society - a culture - not an economy.  Beauty, passion, love, imagination, creation, empathy and dreaming are the essential elements of our existence.  They are the portals to the inexpressible and elusive things that give our lives meaning.  We may have to do other things to make a living, but these are the things that make a life.

It is criminal to deny children of the experiences that promise to give them the greatest joy and understanding of the world they inhabit.  

Schools should be a place where all students have a chance to wash away the dust of daily life and let their souls shine for a while.