me arts ed

The Element

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and force for social progress. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action. 

Ken Robinson talks about his book The Element at the RSA and you can see his video below. It is almost 40 minutes long but worthwhile. Robinson is well known for his TED talk called “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” The Element is about people who have found passion in their lives. People who are doing what they want because they are exactly where they need to be, they have found a purpose in their work and are happy in their lives. It is about people who really know who they are. This book has implications for education and specifically arts education.

Gibson Fay-LeBlanc Opinion in The Portland Press Herald

In an article entitled “Maine Voices: Arts are both practical and essential parts of life” written by the Telling Room’s Director Gibson Fay-LeBlanc he provides the reader with supporting information on why we should be INCREASING funding for the arts instead of the opposite. He articulates the value of arts education and the need for them to be an integral part of education. He sites national level research and how the arts support students achievement in other areas of the school curriculum and in supporting the at-risk youth. He mentions also the need for strong arts programs in “teaching kids to think creatively, how to innovate and how to connect school to the working world”.

I am so glad someone else believes that: “Rather than thinking about how we cut our schools’ arts budgets, we should be thinking about how to better integrate the arts into everything that happens in our schools.”

You can read Gibson’s article by clicking here. Gibson is a poet, writer and director of The Telling Room, a community writing center in Portland.