|
From The
Little Prince by Antoine de St. Exupery:
If
I have told you these details about the asteroid and made a note of its
number for you, it is on account of grown-ups and their ways. Grown-ups love figures.
When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never
ask you any questions about essential matters.
They never say to you, "What does his voice sound like?
What game does he love best?
Does he collect butterflies?"
Instead, they demand: "How
old is he? How many
brothers has he? How much
does he weigh? How much
money does his father make?" Only
from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.
With
the importance that is currently placed on standardized test scores, most
of the public outcry and concern has been about the teaching of basic
skills. If one examines a
typical high school day schedule, the major emphasis of the subject matter
being taught deals with the correct way to complete a problem.
There is a correct way to solve a mathematical equation:
a student only needs to apply the appropriate operation or formula
to get the right answer. The
spelling of a word is either correct or incorrect.
Reading comprehension tests score students on specific information
that should be gained from reading paragraph.
But
we all know that living in the real world involves more than determining
the
correct answers from the incorrect ones.
A variety of choices are available in every situation.
Are we teaching our students to make choices, other than choosing
"right" answers from "wrong" ones?
In fact, are we teaching our students to be aware that there are
choices?
Through
the North East School of the Arts, students have the opportunity to share
with artist/teachers fresh and creative ways to observe and to
communicate. As they progress
through their high school years, I am confident that the insights and
skills they gain by entering the environment of the arts will have a
lasting impact on their lives and world-views.
I
am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities,
we too will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or
politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.
John F. Kennedy
|
