MASKED THE PLAY

How should we begin to think about large purposes? Whether we consider the present or the future, education at its best is first and foremost a moral and intellectual endeavor, always beginning with children and young people and their intentions and needs. By and large, though, we tend, in too many of our schools, to be more attentive to technical than moral and intellectual directions. Rather than education at its best, we are more often preoccupied with simply getting through the days and weeks.
There is, it seems, more concern about whether children learn the mechanics of reading and writing than grow to love reading and writing; learn about democratic practice rather than have
practice in democracy; hear about knowledge, essentially being in
settings where knowledge is dispensed, rather than gain experience
in personally constructing knowledge; engage in competition rather than learn the power of cooperation and collaborative thought; see the world narrowly, simple and ordered, rather than broad, complex, and uncertain; and come to accept the vested authority that exists around them in organizational structures and text rather than being helped to challenge such authority, able to bring a healthy skepticism to the world. Further, the belief that art and music—the aesthetic aspects of life—call for a special talent and are, therefore, open only to a few rather than being fully accessible to all is to ensure an uninspiring education, one that will surely miss too many of the moral and intellectual imperatives that surround children and young people.
In regard to the arts, their limited presence in most schools is clearly symbolic of how fully technical formulations have come
to dominate school practice. There was a time when easels could be found in most classrooms through grade three, in some settings through grade six. They are virtually gone, no longer common even in kindergarten. Why aren’t the arts central to every child’s education, seen as a critical bond linking math, science, social studies, and literature? How can we be serious about learning and say there isn’t time for the arts? I have cited the arts as they are so visibly lacking and at their best so nontechnical.

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