OXFORD,
Miss. – From Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner to legendary
bluesman B.B. King and renowned naturalist painter Walter Anderson,
Mississippi takes pride in a long history of creative artists, and the
Mississippi Arts Commission aims for that tradition to continue.
The
MAC recently held its 11th annual Whole Schools Summer Institute at the
University of Mississippi to help nearly 400 school teachers integrate
arts-based learning into their curriculums. “Mississippi has more
cultural inventory than any other state in the union and most any other
place in the world,” said Malcolm White, MAC’s executive director. “We
already have school buildings, principals, desks and equipment; we
simply want to add arts to the curriculum, and if we are successful,
then we would see a brighter, more forward-thinking Mississippi.”
White made the remark during a session of the weeklong institute “Painting the Big Picture.”
A national model in its 15th year, Mississippi’s Whole Schools Initiative leads the country in incorporating the arts into the classroom, White said. The initiative not only helps lead to increased creativity, innovation and invention, but also, within the state’s model schools, test scores are higher, absenteeism and discipline problems are lowered, and parents are more involved, he added.
“We believe we are creating better citizens, more well-rounded citizens – whole citizens, if you will,” he said.
New York-based jazz pianist Eli Yamin, a presenter at the institute, said educators across the country, from small towns to large cities, have problems engaging their pupils. Programs such as “No Child Left Behind” have restricted teachers’ voices, and ultimately left creativity behind, he said.
“The arts wake the creative impulses in both teachers and students,” Yamin said. “The future of our great country lies with embracing the creative arts.”
Chris Washington, Laurel High School’s assistant band director, said the institute better prepared him to teach his 75 students the history and theory behind music.
“I went in with an open heart and open mind, and I learned a whole lot,” Washington said. “The experience helped me to be a better teacher. It was definitely worth my time.”
The institute offered teaching techniques based on theater, dance, photography, drum circles, creative writing, yoga, comedy, pottery and more.
The arts should be included in school curriculums alongside the longstanding “reading, writing and arithmetic” because continuing to use an outdated agrarian or industrial economic model for education simply doesn’t fit into today’s information-based culture, White said.
“The way to be competitive in the 21st century is to train and teach to the whole mind, not half of it,” White said, referring to the traditional tactics of left-brain teaching. “We are the champions of the right brain.”