I am delighted to have this opportunity to join you today.
Permit me at the outset to extend to you the special greetings of Secretary of Education, Richard Riley, who would have liked to open this conference, but spent the morning on capitol hill, testifying on the federal role in education. He plans to join you at this evening's dinner.
You are gathered here in washington at a most critical time--
And need I say more, than that we are very glad that you are here -- here in washington, here on the hill, and here at this important conference, where we have an opportunity to think through the new challenges placed before us---in the arts and education-- and learn from one another--and forge ahead.
Let me first thank you for being such strong partners in support of goals 2000-- the vehicle the president proposed and the congress adopted--for achieving high standards for all of our nation's children. For many, there is a separate category for the arts and for education; the first, often considered a luxury and the second--education-- a necessity.
But for many americans throughout the country, the arts and education are joined; one, in fact, cannot thrive without the other. And it is this symbiotic lifelong connection which we must foster.
I came to this subject and to my position within the clinton administration with a certain bias--I have always favored the connection between education and the arts.
As a young mother of four children some years ago, I started a volunteer program to bring live professional theater into the schools and today my oldest daughter, a sculptor, teaches in a program in new york city, called studio in the schools, working to enhance and enliven arts education for pre schoolers and their teachers in two schools in china town.
But I speak to you today, not from a personal interest, but a public interest. Effective, exciting, challenging education, made accessible to all our children is our most important work as a nation.
Having said that, however, does not mean that all of art has to have an educational application in the formal sense, or be suitable for children.
An interesting article appeared in yesterday's press, pointing out that one irony in the current debate about the federal role in the arts is that conservatives acknowledge the radical potential of the arts, and liberals, in the effort to protect public funding, wish to downplay the innate capacity of the arts to provoke outrage.
We have to acknowledge that both perspectives are correct--and they are not new. As acting chair of the national endowment for the arts for a brief time and as a former governor who promoted the arts, I can assure you of that.
What is new is that for the first time the arts are included as a core subject in goals 2000, along with math, history, English, science, geography, languages, and civics.
In the past, the arts tagged along as an afterthought to rigorous learning, usually characterized in such phrases as "we will teach academics and the arts."
That hiatus between academics and the arts is now bridged by the inclusion of the arts in the voluntary national standards.
The inclusion of the arts in the core curriculum, as you know, was the result of a long struggle--for at least three years the previous administration rejected the idea. And not until president clinton strongly supported the inclusion of the arts did it happen.
And thanks to the arts and education community throughout this country, the arts standards were produced in record time--and I might add, with a remarkable lack of controversy.
I know I am speaking to the true believers when I underscore the vital nexus between the arts and education--and it could not be expressed more directly than in the new publication: "the arts and education: partners in achieving our national education goals."
An excerpt from the arts standards appears on the first page, and it is worth reading aloud for the pure enjoyment of it.
"...the arts have been an inseparable part of the human journey; indeed we depend on the arts to carry us towards the fullness of our humanity. We value them for themselves, and because we do, we believe knowing and practicing them is fundamental to the healthy development of our children's minds and spirits...."
On a more specific level, the partnership works because--as the standards point out-- the arts cultivate the whole child, gradually building many kinds of literacy while developing intuition, reasoning, imagination and dexterity into unique forms of expression and communication.
We are most grateful to Jane Alexander, the National Endowment of the Arts, and the private sector supporters who made this publication possible. It is a landmark partnership--which goes beyond nice language and good intentions.
For example, one of the practical results of including the arts in the core curriculum is that staff development funds in chapter one can be used to train teachers in this area.
And while there is never any guarantee about maintaining funding for the arts at any level of government--be it federal, state or local---the inclusion of the arts as a serious and substantive academic subject gives the arts a somewhat firmer foothold.
We have many exciting examples of how the arts can make the achievement of high academic standards in all subjects more achievable. We look forward to a publication by the national endowment for the arts in april of a compendium of research on this subject.
Yes, there is skepticism in general, about our capacity to educate all children to high academic standards, and certainly there is even greater questioning as to whether the arts can play a significant role in that process.
From my experience--traveling around this country, visiting schools in texas, in kentucky, in new york city, to name a few -- I believe that we have some excellent schools in this country, and that education levels are generally improving--a substantial achievement when juxtaposed against the changing conditions of our society--increased poverty, weaker family structures, the absorption of a major wave of immigration, and the escalating threat of violence and social breakdown.
Our problem is not that we don't know how to incorporate the arts and education to provide an excellent education--we do, in model after model. Our problem is that success is too isolated, sporadic, and uncertain.
Instead of pointing out one school that works, or even two or three in a community--we must be able to point at random, and find success in every neighborhood school in this country.
Our children deserve no less.
If I could walk into the Wheeler Elementary School in Louisville Kentucky, a remarkable school based on Howard Gardner's seven different kinds of intelligence, and see a video portfolio form of assessment, where a young student has painted the solar system on his sweat shirt, and is doing a sort of dance to explain it, why can't that happen elsewhere?
If the Brooklyn Children's Museum operates a community outreach program for at-risk kids, called "kids crew" that teaches literacy and culture, and provides a safe haven, why can't it happen elsewhere?
And a program sponsored by the getty center, the blythe avenue elementary school in tennessee, was named the harts honor school recently because the schoolwide writing project has succeeded in breaking the cycle of low achievement for kindergartners and first graders--where it matters most.
The list is much longer, and no doubt the people in this room have their own examples. Those who have had the vision and courage and funding, to make these innovative programs possible, forging new collaborations between schools, corporations, museums, municipalities, foundations, and even social service agencies, deserve our praise.
But we can no longer be satisfied with model programs, remarkable as they are. We must take education improvement the next step and become adept at taking success to scale.
There are no easy answers here. But I received a clue on a recent visit to austin, texas--where I witnessed the success of an organization called the austin interfaith alliance. It is not one school, but 60 to 100 schools in texas, new mexico and arizona which form the alliance. Political clout and community pride are gained in being part of a larger movement--with both moral and technical support.
The key is parent involvement, training, linkage to community and churches and synagogues....
The Zavala School which I visited in Austin, Texas, formed a strong sense of purpose, catalyzed by the effort to start a health center in the school.
"It took seven months for the health center to be approved," the principal and parent leader explained, "but the opposition came from the outside and did not represent our community." In the end, some compromises were made, but the outside threat united the community.
What is happening in these communities is more than education reform---what is happening is the slow and painstaking reweaving of the fabric of society.
That is why partnership is more than the avoidance of individual responsibility for education. It is the acceptance of community responsibility for the well being and adequate preparation for adulthood of our children.
It's a different task in a different time, but the oldest task that society has been asked to perform since the first humans walked this earth-- and no doubt the first animals crawled on this earth---the nurturing and preparation of the young to carry on the cycle of life and civilization as we know it.
In a spirit of challenge, we re-discover the power we have in forming coalitions. The lesson of the zavala school in austin texas in starting a health center, in spite of or as a result of outside opposition, may remind us of our capacity to join forces and speak for our own communities.
What happens in washington will play a role --the retention of goals 2000 and the retention of funding for the arts are important---and we must, as you are doing--express our strong support.
But we in washington are only one partner, in a long string of major players. We all acknowledge that the action is not here. It is in our own communities--where we can make all the difference.
We promise to be there with you--to uphold our end of the bargain. But we ask you to return home not discouraged, but reinvigorated, re-charged with a sense of mission, that if we have the will, if we have the examples of success scattered all over this country, there is no excuse for denying any child the right to an excellent, exciting education that will prepare her or him for an independent, happy, and generous life as an adult.
That is our hope and our privilege, as well as our responsibility.
Thank you.
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