Art education in the United States
Alongside John Dewey, Elliot Eisner was a leading advocate for the inclusion of art in modern curriculum.
Attention to aesthetics in the classroom led to public interest in beautifying the school, home, and community, which was known as “Art in Daily Living”.
This is because a major factor in the development in aesthetics as a subject was its relationship to the moral education of the new citizens due to the influx of immigrants during the period.
These materials included a teacher's picture that was larger for the class to look at together, and then smaller reproduction approximately 2 ¾” by 2” for each child to look at.
The picture study movement died out at the end of the 1920s as a result of new ideas regarding learning art appreciation through studio work became more popular in the United States.
[3] Since World War II, artist training has become the charge of colleges and universities and contemporary art has become an increasingly academic and intellectual field.
However, the College Art Association still recognizes the MFA as the terminal degree, stating "At this time, few institutions in the United States offer a PhD degree in studio art, and it does not appear to be a trend that will continue or grow, or that the PhD will replace the MFA".
[6] Among the objectives of DBAE are to make arts education more parallel to other academic disciplines, and to create a standardized framework for evaluation.
[7] Criticism of DBAE is voiced from postmodern theorists who advocate for a more pluralistic view of the arts, and inclusion of a diverse range of viewpoints that may not be included in a standardized curriculum.
Where art education was offered, it consisted of exposure-based experiences with cultural organizations outside of the school and was not integrated into the classroom curriculum.
Key players in advocating for and providing art education included a blend of public entities (schools, government agencies, etc.
With the implementation of NCLB, public schools prioritized meeting Academic Performance Index (API) growth targets, downgrading the emphasis on non-core subjects.
Low-income and low-performing public schools disproportionately struggled with this decline, and African-American and Latino students are generally less able to access the arts when compared to their White counterparts.
[15] Recently, the U.S. Department of Education began awarding Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination grants to support organizations with art expertise in their development of artistic curricula that helps students to better understand and retain academic information.
These efforts include collaborating in state, federal, and public-private partnerships to solicit and provide funding and grants for programs in arts education.
During the 2008 fiscal year, the NEA awarded over 200 grants totaling $6.7 million to programs that allow students to engage and participate in learning with skilled artists and teachers.
[25] The eight multiple intelligences include bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, naturalist, and spatial.
[27] Arts integration in common core subjects creates positive academic and social effects on students.
Integrating the arts into the classroom is a great way to engage students who are otherwise uninterested in common core curriculum.
