Chapter One: The Audition
There is a major disconnect between the knowledge students absorb at school and their ability to use that knowledge. The missing piece is leadership skills which can be achieved through the arts. Engaging in music, dance, theatre or visual arts provides young people with the competitive edge they need to achieve in every aspect of their lives. Studying the arts can help in any career.
Chapter Two: The Left Brain, Right Brain Difference
The more young people do, the more they learn. The more they learn, the more new connections are formed in the brain. These connections help children to use information in new and different ways.
Book: Habits of Mind by Arthur Costas
People: Eric Jensen and Daniel Pink
Chapter Three: Reaching Beyond the Box
As the offshoring of information work continues, the jobs that will be left for North American workers will be conceptual tasks. To perform these conceptual tasks well, North American workers must have highly developed creative and communication skills.
The failure of education: If we learn mainly in an environment in which answers are either right or wrong, we will expect every problem in the whole world to have a right or wrong answer.
It would be better to teach children to think creatively as suggested by Harry Chapin his song,
Flowers are Red
by Harry Chapin The little boy went first day of school
He got some crayons and started to draw
He put colors all over the paper
For colors was what he saw
And the teacher said.. What you doin' young man
I'm paintin' flowers he said
She said... It's not the time for art young man
And anyway flowers are green and red
There's a time for everything young man
And a way it should be done
You've got to show concern for everyone else
For you're not the only one And she said...
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen But the little boy said...
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one Well the teacher said.. You're sassy
There's ways that things should be
And you'll paint flowers the way they are
So repeat after me..... And she said...
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen But the little boy said...
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one The teacher put him in a corner
She said.. It's for your own good..
And you won't come out 'til you get it right
And are responding like you should
Well finally he got lonely
Frightened thoughts filled his head
And he went up to the teacher
And this is what he said.. and he said Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen Time went by like it always does
And they moved to another town
And the little boy went to another school
And this is what he found
The teacher there was smilin'
She said...Painting should be fun
And there are so many colors in a flower
So let's use every one But that little boy painted flowers
In neat rows of green and red
And when the teacher asked him why
This is what he said.. and he said Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen.
The Importance of Play:
We are born creative, but it is educated out of us. Young people who participate in artistic pursuits are able to sustain their creative, innovative, and playful urges throughout their lifetime.
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." Pablo Picasso
Chapter Four: Fear is the Biggest Hindrance to Success
"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original." Ken Robinson
We need to give young people lots of opportunities to succeed. Confidence comes from competence, and competence comes from practice. Practice involves learning from trying and making mistakes.
"An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail." Isaac Newton
The great thing about the arts is that the focus is not on right and wrong answers.
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." Aristotle
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." Albert Einstein
Chapter Five: What Do I Do? Seeing Problems as Exciting Challenges Waiting to be Solved
Dr. Nido Qubein: "Life does not offer what we need. It offers what we deserve, and if we want to deserve more, we have to become more valuable. Our value is directly determined by the size of the problems we are able to solve. If we want to be more valuable, we have to be able to solve bigger problems. The best problem solvers are those who focus on results rather than obstacles."
If negativity is taken out of the equation, problems are simply what young children know them to be: opportunities to be creative. "Inside of every problem is an opportunity." --Robert Kiyosaki The point is, the way we see a problem defines our ability to solve it.
6 Things Adults Inadvertently Do To Discourage the Development of Problem-Solving Skills
- Giving children the right answer instead of letting them discover it for themselves
- Setting limits on possibilities
- Lack of patience/persistence
- Being afraid to ask for help
- Not asking enough questions
- Poor modeling
One: Always see the potential in young people and do whatever you can to foster it.
Two: Material successes in life are nice, but what matters is making a difference in the life of a child.
Three: Encourage the dreams of others, as you never know the impact it may bring.
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is not path, and leave a trail." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Kids need to feel a significant sense of achievement and be acknowledged for it.
Arts-involved children:
- Get better grades
- Have higher rates of college enrollment
- More likely to volunteer in their communities, vote, and become involved in local politics
- More optimistic about what is ahead of them
- More likely to set and achieve goals
Dreams do not become reality without effort on the part of the dreamer; work ethic is an essential element.
Chapter Seven: It's All About Accountability
There are two main reasons why taking responsibility is an important skill that too many of us lack: 1) there is a common misconception in our society that making mistakes is a character flaw which leads to fear of failure and 2) an underdeveloped sense of empathy.
We do not achieve in isolation. Asking for help is usually a sign of strength.
Accountability and Education: Too many students fail to see a connection between the way they perform in class and the grade they receive for the class. One reason for this is grade inflation. Making a child feel good about himself should not come at the expense of teaching them the values of hard work and perseverance. We need to focus less on protecting children and more on giving them opportunities to step up and take responsibility for their actions.
"it is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequences of one's acts." Gandhi
The arts can help build accountability in a number of different ways:
- Develop empathy for others--the effect of one's actions on others
- Overcome the fear of failure and the consequences of their failures.
"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else." Benjamin Franklin
Chapter Eight: The Lost Art of Conversation
"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." George Bernard Shaw
Limits of Technology: Just because we interact more often than we used to, it does not mean that the quality of our interaction is better. Technology can make us lazy in our interactions. According to Nido Qubein, effective communication has three basic components: 1) connect with the audience, 2) convey messages the audience understands, and 3) check the audience's responses to what you are saying. Relying heavily on electronic communication does not allow for any of these.
The arts can help with communication. The Washington State Arts Commission states that, "the arts are languages that all people speak--that cut across racial, cultural, social, educational, and economic barriers." Understanding words and body language to our advantage is key to success in life. The arts teach this in countless ways.
"The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said." Peter Drucker
Chapter Nine: Change is the Only Constant
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." Charles Darwin
"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." Lao Tzu
Creative, right brain skills will allow young people to adapt better to a constantly changing world and changing job marketplace.
If we are only trained in academics, we do not know what to do when the formula we have been taught do not produce the right answer to a new problem.
Chapter Ten: The Curtain Call
Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers repeatedly mentions the "10,000-Hour Rule," stating that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of about 10,000 hours. This is true whether learning to play the piano or developing leadership skills. Teachers must be intentional in what they do when teaching the arts and developing leadership skills so children will learn what they need from the experience.
At the end of the book the author lists a number of " How Will You Know" questions for of the areas: 1) develop creativity, 2) develop confidence, 3) develop problem-solving skills, 4) develop a positive mindset in order to dream big, 5) develop communication skills, 6) develop relationship building skills, 7) develop accountability, and 8) develop adaptability.
