Welcome chapter members and guests!
This discussion program has been prepared for the Spring 2006 program of the Walden Cyberspace Phi Delta Kappa Chapter. Please read the following and then join the dialogue on this topic by posting your thoughts or questions for Dr. Betts in the comment board at the bottom of the page.

Our Vice President for Programs, Jennifer Pullman, introduces our presenter:

It is my pleasure and honor to welcome a most distinguished educator to our meeting—Dr. Janice Lake Betts.

I was first wowed by Janice's enthusiam and charisma when I attended an educator's symposium at the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts that was facilitated by Janice. She absolutely radiated a "can-do" attitude and a love for teaching—particularly in terms of infusing the arts into reading and writing. Little did I know how expansive her enthusiasm actually was! Janice embraces all of life's adventures, and incorporates them into every educational project she can. To best explain what I mean, just check out the following overview of her accomplishments and activities:

• Consultant, Artscape, Tuckahoe, NJ, a literacy and arts consulting firm
• Served as Arts Education Coordinator, Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts
• Professor of Communications, teaching Children's Literature and Storytelling, The College of New Jersey
• Researcher and Supervisor Project START, Student Teachers as Researching Teachers, The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education
• Professor of Communications and English as a Second Language, Cape Atlantic Community College
• Former Preseident, New Jersey Reading Association, The Reading Council of Southern NJ, Alliance for Arts Education New Jersey, Teachers as Researchers
• Special Interest Group for International Reading Association (IRA)
• Current Chair RETA, Reading Excellence Through the Arts, International Reading Association
• Co-President Elect, Reading Council of Southern NJ
• Chair Long-Range Planning Committee, New Jersey Reading Association, and serves on Adivisory Committee for the Government Relations Committee, International Reading Association.
• Keynote Speeches and Presentations Internationally
• Chaired the IRA Eastern Regional Conferfence, Atlantic City, NJ
• Co-authored, Turfgrass, Nature's Constant Benediction
• Hobbies include, writing, playwriting, photography and flying (SHE RECENTLY RECEIVED HER PILOT'S LICENSE!!!)
• Lived in South Jersey entire life but traveled extensively and especially enjoys the wild country of Maine and Montana.
• Primary professional interest is in teaching reading and writing through the arts.
• Research focus has been in the area of playwriting with adolescents and its potential for change.

Janice will be discussing  the place of the arts in the curriculum in all subjects; how we can foster its use as well as advocate for it... and hopefully she'll tell us something of her own colorful experiences while doing so! I have seen her effect on my own students. Her methods WORK. Please welcome her by becoming a part of this exciting exchange!

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Here's Janice!

Shortly after we begin our discussion, I would like to meet each one of you in order to tailor our comments to more closely fit your needs and interest. When you reply, please tell me something about yourself, professional responsibilities, interests and questions you would like to explore relating to literacy and the arts.

I will tell you a little bit about my background, as we begin this discussion. Years ago while serving as a classroom teacher with struggling adolescent readers, it seemed natural for me to teach them through the arts. For example, the readers who struggled the most always wanted to have the lead roles in dramatic readings in the classroom, they eagerly volunteered to make sets or scenery, and were able to come up with ideas for staging plays with minimal scenery and costumes. In order to do each of these, it was obvious that a higher level of thinking, critical, or "metacognitive," thought processes were demanded. Elliot Eisner, a theorist whom I hope you will rely upon,once said,"We cannot know through language what we cannot imagine... Those who cannot imagine cannot read."

These young adolescents were imagining and thus were also inspired to read. The definition of literacy is multifaceted. As artists we know that literacy can mean not only responding to visual objects but to auditory stimuli, and responding in movement and dance. Some of us think of "pictures first" and "words second" as a wonderful book by Stephen Kroll suggests.* Unfortunately this book has not been reprinted as far as I know.

To make a long story short, I left this school and pursued a Masters Degree in reading because I knew these students were learning through many intelligences as Gardner points out. We all learn in different ways and at different times.

The most challenging thing for me recently has been to secure a pilot's license. I did this not only because I love to fly, but because I wanted to know what it feels like to be a learner again. I struggled with subjects that were not easy for me and now have the satisfaction we can give our students when they have those real moments of awakening in the classroom. The arts have the power to unlock doors for all students in ways we have yet to imagine. Let me know your thoughts and experiences that come to mind. I look forward to interacting with each of you.

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Discussion

Name	Comment
Jenny (Jennifer Pullman)	Welcome again, Janice! It does my heart good to hear some of the teaching experiences that shaped your philosophy about the many ways we learn, communicate, and find self-expression as human beings. As an inner-city school teacher in a poverty-riddled community, I have been bombarded with this revelation daily for the past couple of decades. It becomes so apparent that it is almost painful to see the practically exclusive emphasis on the "basics" that dictate acceptable "annual yearly progress" (in terms of the No Child Left Behind Act and related funding). But every day I see evidence of brilliance in my "failing" students. In fact, very recently--this past Friday--one of my former students, now 19, presented at our school's Career Day. This young man had been a special education student throughout elementary, middle, and high school, but thanks to his early recognition of his particular strengths in the arts, he was able to find an alternative "language" for navigating this world. This student is from a poor, broken family, yet there he was, warmly encouraging younger kids, convincing them that there IS success to be found in the world. He is starting at the Philadelphia Institute of Art this summer. Obviously, he garnered enough reading, writing, and math skills to get through the application process, etc.. I believe this is due largely to his uncompromising inner focus and drive which was fostered by opportunites in the arts. Eisner certainly backs this stance up, and many, many great minds lean this way as well (see Campbell, 1998; Dewey, 1932 and 1934, Fowler, 1996; I could go on and on and on!). Even Plato placed the arts at the core of learning (see his "Republic"). Particularly for struggling children in urban schools, there is a rising awareness that an education without the arts is a very narrow education. I look forward to hearing and discussing strategies for establishing a broader, more cross-curricular (and natural) approach to education for our diverse students in this forum. What an opportunity to affect change!
Arthur Ogden	Welcome, Janice! It'ss great to hear from someone from South Jersey. I graduated from Bridgeton HS in 1963 (yes, I AM that old) and my father still lives near Jenny in Egg Harbor Township. My degrees are all in philosophy (Wladen even let me declare my major as Education Philosophy so that I could write my dissertation on Nietzsche's philosophy of education) so I KNOW how important the arts are in one's education and in one's development. Eisner is correct. Without imagination our worlds would be rather empty and sttipped of the uniqueness each of us brings to that external reality through our internal processing of our experiences. I believe that an artist lives within each of us and it is part of a pedagogist's charge to bring out that artist regardless of the medium in which it may be expressed. Language, as language is, agt best a compromise between thought and action; but language as ART is, in my humble opinion, a function of higher order thinking and conscious organization. While my focus is on higher education administration, I am a college provost, I still manage to teach at least one course per semester in either ethics or aesthetics. So, WELCOME to our little enclave of very dedicated pedagogists. We eagerly wish to engage your approaches to integrating the arts with the general education.
Marion Carpenter	I am just now retiring after 37 years of teaching, everything from preschool through and including college and being an administrator. The sharing has been most fascinating. Though I have never considered myself an artist, as I look back, I have always incorporated art into my teaching in as many ways as possible. Students don't feel as if they are working, no matter what the subject, if art is included. This is the easiest, least stressful way to learn. It seems as if so many more modalities of learning are used when art is involved, especially as a group - communication, planning, seeing, hearing, touching, understanding, reconsidering, compromising, and the list goes on. When they work as a group, they teach each other as they share their strengths, giving a sense of community to what may have previously been a noncohesive class. They learn not only how to read, but many life skills necessary to gettting along in life. My hat is off to Dr. Betts for sharing this innovative technique. How does a good teacher teach reading? Through any method that works for any given child or group of children, doing whatever it takes. Thank you for sharing, Dr. Betts, and welcome to our group.
Andre Elliott	Hello Janice, I presently teach music in a K - 5 school for the U.S.Dept. of Defense Schools in Japan. I simply enjoy learning and look forward to our thought-provoking interactions with you. I have a Master's in Edu Admin and a Ph.D. in education from Walden. Regarding arts in education, my students recently completed a song writing exercise designed to help improve their reading and reading comprehension. Annually, I facilitate a multiple intelligences festival to ensure students are keenly aware of the many ways we are smart. I am a founding member of Walden University Phi Delta Kappa. Therefore, I have seen its growth from an idea discussed by individuals during a casual walk. Walden PDK remains the only PDK cyberspace chapter. Welcome to our pride and joy.
Marilyn K. Simon	Hi Janice, Thanks so much for being here. I am the proud faculty advisor for this illustrious chapter. I have had the good fortune of studying educational systems in Europe, Asia, Africa and in North America. My major area of research is in mathematics education. Mathematics literacy shares much with reading literacy. The controversy regarding how to teach the basics of mathematics is as controversial as the whole language versus phonetics debate. I am a firm believer in constructivist education but also in "doing what works." We greatly appreciate the educational discourse and your taking time to share your expertise with us.
Jarek	Hello Dr. Betts, I am a Walden student in the educational technology program and artistic expression has always been a part of my life. I used to paint and draw a lot and was involved in theatre. I concur with Jenny's comments that stress on the "basics" deprives of the opportunity to be heard through the arts, especially those students who need it most. I'm looking forward to our discussions on this forum.
Doris Sweeney	It is heartening to know the interest and drive is still in existence to keep art in the curriculum in an era of erratic cut back and threats. Exposure to the arts and hands on with the arts is a must.
Jarek	Dr. Betts, With return to basics advocated strongly in the No Child Left Behind legislation, what do you believe is, or what should be the role of the arts in the K-12 curriculum? How can arts support the "four Rs" and what can teachers do, to maintain the relevance of the arts in the instructional processes at their local schools?
Joe Piasek	Hello Janice and all. Marvelous to have this discussion on the arts in the curriculum. I am a Walden doc, have a masters in communication, work with Nickelodeon in audience assessment (for 20+ years), and teach undergrad and graduate media (NYU, Quinnipiac), although my work in K-12 public school policy and media education are most inspiring. Do you have any sense that a well-formulated curriculum, in itself, can provide art? What I mean is, as we develop and assemble learning programs, course schedules, texts, exercises, etc., how do you feel we should also consider as primary the role that the total package of our pedagogical practice plays in unlocking the essence of the human condition— really a pre-condition for meaningful outcomes in reading, math, science… For example, isn’t a music course really a math course in a holistic context? And shouldn't it be positioned as such? (In this sense, cutting or devaluing a music program would be to cut or devalue math.)
Jenny	I couldn't resist jumping in at this point with these excellent questions being raised about the arts' "position" (thanks, Joe!) in our curricular programs today. My belief--based on two decades as both a "regular" classroom teacher and an art educator--is that the arts need not support "core" subjects that are central to high-stakes testing. It is our short-sighted perception of the arts that needs to be addressed. The arts represent a complete and very essential subject area for all learners. The fact that they do tend to enrich many other content areas is not disputed; but to have to justify them in schools based on how much they increase test scores or provide planning time for teachers of "basic" subjects overlooks their own rich, intrinsic value in human experience, development, and education.
Joe P	Thanks Jenny for your response on the intrinsic value of art in the short-term. But herein, I believe lies the paradox. Are you saying that art subjects are, in themselves, complete? Surely "art" is life as it is lived in the long-haul, with all its inerconnected experiences, cognitions and diversions. Art curricula impact all of that. Art forms the glue that binds, learning, living, loving, being... Or course, we must argue and fight for the maintenance of art subjects, per se, each year, but the arts are often cut (or relegated to second tier status) because educators are complicit (inadvertently or otherwise), in supporting administrators' myopia (read: blinded by budget shortfalls) of art as essentially on its own. My point is that art is not on its own. It is hard-wired to all. The more we represent it as such the less it can be separated (ripped) from the rest of learning. Without the long view, its short term validity (in relation to NCLB testing, for example) may keep it before the firing squad on a regular basis. So… I guess my question is this: Why separate long and short strategies to address the arts deficit? Can’t we strengthen short term objectives by concurrently fortifying the long view?
Jenny	Certainly any reason for preventing arts programs from being eliminated from schools is important in the "why value arts education" discussion...but my fear (along with many others) is that the emphasis will be too permanently placed on how the arts benefit and/or are a part of the "real" academic subjects. Desperate art teachers have been jumping on such a bandwagon ever since arts programs have been threatened by the NCLB act, and the political back-to-basics movement. It's important to recognize that ALL subjects are infused throughout other subjects and life itself. Is symmetry a component of art or math...or science? Each discipline has both unique and overlapping aspects. We need to hang on to a concept of art's own value in life and education!
Marion	Joe's and Jenny's threads are fascinating, and both are right. Art should be considered on its own, as it is intrinsic to human nature. Even the cave men took time from essential hunting and gathering to draw magnificently on cave walls. However, in the day of tight money art and music may be cut or down sized if it isn't tied to the regular curriculum in some way. It is easier, it seems, to do art in the elementary schools, as those teachers are not as pressed for time on task due to earning credits to graduate. Also, the arts are more recognized as important to children there, among teachers in general. These are things I have noticed as I have taught in both areas. Though not an art teacher, I always used art in every area I taught. Students seem to understand science concepts better when they see it drawn by themselves, for example. They learned better simply by the relaxation art brings as well as learning by doing. Art teachers may need to see what teachers are teaching and see how they can incorporate an art project complementing that subject or area. I can see biology students drawing botanical pictures or English classes using claymation to create a play and writing out the parts. The techniques are still art, though the style is very different. I realize this would not allow for a lot of freedom for the art teachers, but perhaps they could do the subject related art only in areas where students are having difficulties, and for the novelty of it. That would save some time for art done for art's sake.
Andre Elliott	Our discourse is traveling in all directions. This, I think is profound evidence of the deep and caring thinking that members of our community provocate. I am a music educator. I often place music on a mountain top. It seems grandly important for human beings. I'll concur that a mathematical equation can be incredibly interesting and applicable in life. The site of a space shuttle can be breathtaking. Do forgive my bias here. However, ladies and gentlemen, I think music is special among all the things that humans do and feel. Am I initiating a debate? Not at all. I am simply helplessly in love with music. I do believe that all of human knowledge and experiences are interrelated. Just as no man is an island entirely unto himself, music and art are parts of who and what we are. A human being is not a human being without the arts. I recently bought an autobiography of a great jazz pianist, Horace Silver. It is titled, "Let's Get Down to the Nitty Gritty." I think we are getting down to the nitty gritty now. Let's keep this intellectual discourse flowing like a river.
Gay	In the category of "things I wish I'd done" earlier in my life, learning and practicing art for art's sake is HUGE for me in my middle age. I had an older sister who was "the artist in the family", and I found my niche in academic areas. I never took an art class in high school or college, apart from the photography classes that led to a 12 year career in that field--but I always felt more like a craftsman than an artist with my photography. I'm sort of techie inclined. I simply didn't TRUST my ARTISTIC self. I didn't know that part of me. It never even occurred to me to take time to study ART! If I had, I may have understood much earlier its importance to my fullest possible life. True, I did always show an artistic streak in other subjects, and my teaching career has centered around developing the use of computer technologies as a creative tool. But an amazing thing has happened to me the last year and a half. I enrolled in a series of drawing classes at a community college, in order to help in my computer animation teaching. THIS WHOLE NEW WORLD OPENED UP FOR ME! I followed that up with an oil painting class this last Spring semester, and I have been totally sucked into the challenge and joy of doing art! This latent talent may be held under the surface in very many people, and I am more than ever determined to give FIRST priority to the role of creative expression in education. My point is, that I wish I'd HAD to study art--I wish it had been a required part of my education, so that I would have learned all this much earlier in my life!
Jenny	Gay, you are the ultimate Renaissance Woman! What don't you do?! Finding your way back to the artist within you is such a wonderful example of how art balances all our other sides. I felt similarly when--thanks to our own Dr. Simon--I delved into the study of statistics in my Walden program, and was fascinated by the "language" numbers could speak! They expressed human ideas in am alternative way to the symbols and expressive methods I normally rely on in my art work. It smacks of watching my "I can't draw!" students get lost in a painting or design assignment that they balked about. Every learning discipline is hard work, and such an important accomplishment when tackled to the best of one's ability. That takes me back to my contention that art (and the arts) is a distinct discipline in the complete learning spectrum...with beautiful "blends" occuring when the disciplines bleed into one another on the spectrum! (uh-oh, there I go back into my image comfort zone!)
Dr. Janice Lake Betts	Jen, I know how proud and pleased you must have felt to see your student on career day. No doubt his influence was widespread in your school for I know having been in your class how needy the students are for a "hero" or "inspirator" figure. You do such good things in a very challenging situation. Keep up your fight for the arts at the core of education for it will pay off as you already know.
Dr. Janie Lake Betts	Arthur, It certainly is a small world. I was just in Bridgeton several weeks ago. You are certainly pursueing a path that intersects perfectly with your views on the arts. So glad to hear of your position for you will be able to effect change at a level that might make a difference. Looking forward to hearing more from you in the future as I become part of this site.
Dr. Janice Lake Betts	Marion, After 37 years sof teaching reading, it would be hard for me to tell you the way that works best. You are perfectly right in using what works best with each student. What those of us who have utilized an arts based appraoch have found is that it has the potential to engage and motivate even the most reluctant of readers in ways we never imagined. I remember vividly students who sat passively in classrooms until they were asked to become actively engaged. This is when they would shine and become part of the whole group. A classroom buzzing with acitivity is one in which learning is occurring. One need only take a look at the expressionson the children's faces and at the work they produce if challenged to "reach beyond the margins." You have so much to share with this group from so many years in the classroom finding out what works best.
Dr. Janice Lake Betts	Andre, Sounds like you are dong a fascinating job integrating reading and music with songwriting. I have a cousin in Japan who teaches English and he speaks often of the challenges he faces. Recently, I thought about focusing on a song writing project that incorporates art as well.Have you done anything with art and music?
Dr. Janie Lake Betts	Gay, Congratualtions on your new found talent. You see, it has been there all along and what if you had had a teacher who helped you uncover it before a later stage in your life. Imagine the possibilities. These classes will add such depth to your ability to work with animation. I am intriqued by the use of this on the comput3er and see such poetential for reading and writing. It will a challenge for you to see where it takes you and I look forward to hearing from you.
Dr. Janice Lake Betts	Jenny, Your comments make me think of students who sit and can't think of how to start a writing assignment. If only they had had a teacher who knew that words don't always have to come first. Sopme people think pictures first and are visual learners. As Gardne4r states, we need to tune into the learinbg styles of our students and help them uncover ways to make assignments more meaningful. If you are stuck teaching one way, I challenge you all to try someting mew and different when the new year starts. Start planning and getting excited about it over the summer and team up with your art or music teacher and see what happens. Together you will make the biggest differnce in your students attitude toward school and classwork.
Dr. Janice Lake Betts	Jarek, We are all troubled by the stress on basics. In schools where we need the arts most the art and music programs are the first to go. Of course, we keep the football and baseball teaams. As President of the Alliance for Arts Education in NJ, I had the opportunity to work on advocacy campaignms for the arts as basic to education. We must continue to fight. Look at the Kennedy Center website for advocacy ideas and arts based curriculum. It is great.
Dr. Janice Lake Betts	Jarek, With No Child Left Behind it has made our task even more difficult I agree. However, we can make strides ahead by stacking the deck in favor of arts based curriculum. If you are on a committee to plan Staff Development days in your school, make sure you get professionals to come in who share your belief in the arts and have found innovative ways to utilize the arts to teach the basics for it works.
Dr. Janice Lake Betts	Joe, I see the point you are making and it is a case often argued both ways. Do we teach music to make our math skills better? Or does math make us better musicians? Then, there are those proponents of the philosophy of music for music's sake or art for art's sake. I believe that there is a synergistic relationship between the subjects and when we teach one we foster and elevate another and this then crosses over to other subjects. For example, we need to look thematically at teaching rather than putting it into seperate categories. We can teach music in history and history in music. We can teach art in math and math in science. This is the ultimate challenge it seems.
Dr. Janice Lake Betts	Doris, Yes, exposure to the arts is imperative if we are to foster children who can function in our highlty technological and graphic society. We can't afford to let them go through school without the tools they will need to function as adults.
Dr. Janice Lake Betts	It seems to me that many people do not define the arts in their broadest sense and are the ones putting them into boxes or categories. The toughest job is to educate the public as to what the arts are in their entirity, what they can do for their children, and how they can preserve them in times of budget cuts and academic crisis like NCLB.
Jenny	Janice, I think you've hit the nail on the head when you note that there is a lack of consistency about how the arts are defined. Through my experiences as an art teacher, and my ongoing research in the arts education realm, it has become apparent to me that perceptions about art and art education vary wildly compared to views of traditional basic subjects. We (as a society and as educators, parents and administrators) need to be able to stretch our concept of all that a curricular area can encompass. The arts may seem uncomfortably "plural" and more difficult to manage and assess to some people, but when we grasp how equally far-reaching and empowering arts learning can be for all, we can get past the resistence to incorporate them as core subjects. "It is always darkest before the dawn", and I feel the dawn of a new attitude toward arts education is just around the corner. The powers-that-be can't be content to keep their vision tunneled on the conventional basics forever...at some point they'll need to step back and take a breath of fresh air, feeling a need to find what's missing. And the arts will be waiting!
Andre	Dr. Betts, I have always engaged my students in the simple act of listening to music while simultaneously making art. The music can vary in tempo, style, feeling and theme. The art can vary in the use of materials, time and space. I have had students present projects in which they simply expressed their ideas and feelings via the construction of an artistic presentation that was born of the power of music. Recently, I noticed several sites on the Internet devoted to music and art collaborations.
Jenny	Combining art and music of the same time periods can provide a deeply felt introduction to a historical period, again underscoring the inter-relatedness of all subjects.

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