Week 2 - Blog Posting #4 -21st Century Skills & Lifelong Learning

http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/are-we-our-right-minds-lfas-interview-bestselling-author-dan-pink

Are We in Our Right Minds?
LFA's Interview with Bestselling Author Dan Pink. By Claus von Zastrow on February 27, 2008

“You might want to put your kids through art school after all. Best-selling author Dan Pink's prediction that the MFA could become the next MBA is sure to kindle joy in the hearts of underfed visual arts majors everywhere, but it also has profound implications for K-12 public schools. Right-brained skills are becoming an increasingly important ticket to success in the post-information age, Pink argues in his book A Whole New Mind.
Public schools will have to do much more to promote such skills, he suggested, at a time when employers can easily automate or outsource traditional left-brained activities.
The Demand for Right-Brained Skills in a “Conceptual Age.
”
Pink argued that we have entered a “conceptual age” in which right-brained attributes such as artistry, empathy, inventiveness and big-picture thinking have become every bit as important as logical, sequential and analytical left-brained skills.
Are Public Schools Ready for the Conceptual Age?

Pink told me that the conceptual age has enormous implications for public schools, which unfortunately still give right-brained skills very short shrift. He laid much responsibility for this misalignment at the feet of policymakers. Educators, he argued, intuitively understand the importance of right-brained abilities, but they are hamstrung by outmoded and often counterproductive policies.” (Zastrow, 2008)

This interview both empowered me and emptied me at the same time. I have struggled with the feelings of unimportance within the school building because of the lack of interest and support for the arts. The students LOVE to come to my room. They create individualized and extremely creative artworks; yet my job would be the first one cut if the schools ran low on funds. We are supposed to be giving the students 21st century education and the arts lend themselves to the six areas:

(A Rare Chance:
Showing 21st Century Skills
Are Taught in the Art Classroom
by Steve Stone
Davis Publications &
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2008)
Slide show by Steve Stone on Showing 21st century skills are being taught in the Art Classroom.


"21st Century Skills

• Creativity & Innovation
• Collaboration
• Problem Solving
• Critical Thinking
• Global Awareness
• Media & Technology Literacy" (Stone, 2008)

Creativity, innovation, problem solving, and critical thinking are used daily in the art room through experimenting with different mediums, shapes, color, lines, space, patterns, and textures. Students are always learning methods that can work and ideas that don't work. Giving students the security to try without the fear of failure breads innovation and creativity. Providing the supplies without a plan invites critical thinking, collaboration with their peers, and problem solving.

Global awareness is seen through the study of time and distance. Art has been done from the beginning of time and all over the world. Comparing their differences and similarities brings about great discussions of history, cultural differences, and global humanity.

Technology is all about creating and recreating you. Creating a website takes composition skills. Graphics design is a powerhouse! Advertising=Art=creativity=innovation=problem solving=21st century skills. Our students need to be taught the skills they need to live in today's world. Our schools need to be trained with this knowledge and hopefully through this process will see that the arts are already leading the way with 21st century education.