Mr. B is a major fan of Tori Amos. Youtube videos of the New York City fifth graders singing Tori Amos songs have developed a huge following on the internet. In May, Tori Amos met the chorus in the atrium of Sony Music headquarters in Manhattan. Below is part 1 of 4 of the meeting.

I’m a photographer, painter and poet and my wife is a chamber musician.

One think I envy about the chamber musicians is that chamber music is INHERENTLY collaborative. Painting and poetry are solo by nature. You can create exercises in group poetry writing or group painting but those are usually artificial constructions for the purpose of creating a collaborative effort or for community-building. Very little, if any, great art has ever been created that way. Whereas you can’t even have chamber music without extensive, intimate, ongoing collaboration between the musicians, during practuce and performance. And jazz takes it to an even higher level because it involves CREATIVE collaboration even during the performance.

So even though I’m a poet, photographer, and painter, I do think that music offers something that other arts don’t with regard to learning important life skills.

rdorn: I am going to assume that rahbuhbuh just didn’t think about this comment very long before posting it. Of course visual arts require hard work, patience, persistence and practice.

it was phrased sloppily. there is an immediate sense of right and wrong when learning an instrument. i differentiate “learning” from “playing.” a note is either pitch perfect, flat, or sharp. it is either on or off beat. visual arts do not have that precise criteria, so the work ethic is different and mastering the skills is more subtle. i mentioned nothing about visual arts being easier only that, generally, they are judged in subjective terms.

When I did however, it was always such a wonderful event, it was fun and I could learn and grow as my own mind wanted to.

I often hear about “schools need to teach morality and character”, and yet the one subject that does that so well for so many is often the first to be thrown away.

Bands, orchestras, dancing, mural painting, and more are wonderful chances to learn how to work well with others and grow as part of a group.

Learning an instrument, figuring out how to throw, understanding Photoshop or life drawing, all require patience and willingness to keep at it.

Creating a terrain in 3D, creating an epic, writing a world within a story, teach the mind to see the larger idea with a concept of the small by your hand.

Arts aid the character, they can heal the mind, and they can let you grow. Yet all to often we cut it out as a seed before we get a chance to reap what we have sown.

Too often it is easy to lose sight of the values we can get from such classes when so much is dedicated to just a few tests that have no room or ability to test what can be gained or sought from them.

A WASL, A CAT, the ITAD, Exit Exam, Entrance Exam, Qualifying Exam none have a box for a haiku nor a picture of a rose. What a world we would live in if they did?

I am an artist by trade and my life is viewed as such, but I know I am a better person for the rare chances I had in art classes then I would have been had none of the schools or tutors never shown me how to create or articulate.

I am going to assume that rahbuhbuh just didn’t think about this comment very long before posting it. Of course visual arts require hard work, patience, persistence and practice.

I teach pottery, art and art appreciation at a community college. My beginning pottery students are always surprised by how difficult the skill of throwing is to learn. The ones who succeed in learning to throw and the ones who get the most out of the class are–without exception–the one’s who put the most time and effort into practicing the skills (just like learning to play the violin, huh?).

Even my art appreciation students are surprised by how hard my classes are–not because they have to write a lot of papers or do a lot of worksheets, but because I require them to articulate their own opinions and I don’t hand them a key to the “correct” answers.

My art appreciation students have commented that they are frustrated because my class isn’t like math “there’s no right answer.” This type of open-ended thinking is not encouraged in the schools around here. Often they’ve never been encouraged to have an opinion before my class.

While I think it is wondwerful and essential that you and other parents seek out oportunities to expose your kid to the arts, I’m distressed by the sense of resignation in your comments. It the topic was “math” you wouldn’t be saying “If there is no money in the schools for math, then we have to do a better job of finding it in the community–or creating such opportunities for them”.

Instead, most parents would be DEMANDING that the schools and towns and states provide adequate funding for a proper education. The arts are not some sort of frivolous luxury that we can dispense with anymore than any other academic subject is.