National Art Education Association

Keeping an Eye on the Real TargetAuthor(s): Jerome J. HausmanSource: Art Education, Vol. 45, No. 4 (Jul., 1992), pp. 4-5Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193328 .

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Keeping an Eye on the Real Target An Editorial

During his January, 1992 trip to Japan, President Bush became ill at a State Dinner. While American news media coverage of the event had been restricted, there were Japanese reporters in atten- dance who recorded the unhappy circum- stances. To the chagrin of those who would manage the news, the image of an American President in distress was flashed over the world. What we saw was not what the White House staff wanted us to see.

Over and over again, we can identify evidence of increased surveillance and control of the news about presidential activities conveyed by our media. This attitude extends to include a wide range of governmental activities. One need only compare and contrast the handling of information about the Gulf War and the fighting in Vietnam. The control of informa- tion dissemination had much to do with the way in which the public understood and

reacted to these events. A great deal has been written and said

about presidential initiatives in education. The December 25, 1991, edition of the Chicago Tribune contained an article as part of a Video Diplomacy series by Timothy J. McNulty. He observed that "White House officials and political opera- tives are beginning to capitalize on the evolving technology in promoting domestic policy." One of the examples cited was a recent attempt "to show the president's concern for the nation's schools." A private film company was hired to produce a presidential speech on education. "It was staged before a class of 8th graders at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washing- ton and transmitted live by satellite to the Public Broadcasting System and CNN." "The other networks were banned from the classroom while the private production crew checked out the location, camera

4 Art Education/July 1992

The War We Won by Roger Brown, 1991. Oil on canvas, 84 x 120". Courtesy of Phyllis Kind Gallery, 313 West Superior, Chicago, Illinois.

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angles and lighting and then positioned cameras to film the audience reaction." Cynthia Mostroller, the teacher involved in this filming, reported: "a White House aide had told her to instruct the children to keep their eyes focused on the president."

Like many Americans, I am pleased that there is growing attention being paid to our educational programs. America 2000 has been announced as a federal "long-term strategy to help us make this land all that it should be." The strategy is characterized as a bold step forward. It is said to antici- pate "major change in our 110,000 public and private schools, change in every American community, change in every American home, change in our attitude about learning." The program's rhetoric descriptive of new initiatives toward achieving '"orld class standards" abounds. As a part of this effort, America's business leaders have established a new non-profit organization: the New American Schools Development Corporation that in 1992 will award contracts to Design Teams that will help communities create schools that will reach the National Education Goals and the World Class Standards in English, mathematics, science, history, and geography for all students, as monitored by the American Achievement Tests and similar measures. For more detailed information, contact the U.S. Department of Education (1-800-USA-LEARN).

Almost begrudgingly, there is recogni- tion of the arts in education. An appendix for the Design Team proposal request states that "a strategy for integrating all facets of a school's life" should include "opportunity for artistic expression."

Lest I sound somewhat naive, it is important to understand the importance of mandated learning objectives and the necessary systems for bringing about change on a national scale. Just as important, we have to keep our eyes focused upon what is really happening and not be swept up in the euphoria of empty promises or media manipulation.

Many of our National Art Education Association's leaders have already spoken

out decrying the weak status accorded the arts as basic areas of learing in recent governmental education initiatives. Along with our colleagues in Music, Dance, and Drama, we have made known those fundamental assumptions that would place the arts at the core of the curriculum dealing with higher order thinking.

Just as important, there needs to be understanding of the nature of standards that can and should be adhered to at a national level. This is especially important in the arts where the forms themselves under study confront us with the need to entertain diverse perspectives and alterna- tive modes of knowing. This is a point so well articulated by the art historian, Joshua Taylor: "In the arts the way the knowledge is gained is a part of the knowledge itself; how we find out is an inseparable part of what we find out. This is another way of saying that the content of art, although it is not the sensuous experience itself, exists only within the sensuous experience." A Seminar in Art Education for Research and Curriculum Development, E. Mattil, Editor, 1966, p. 49).

We have to keep our eyes on the center of the target: our students and the creative work in which they are engaged (creating and responding to art). It is important that we not fall prey to those who would ma- nipulate and manage our lives without understanding and appreciation of what we are really trying to accomplish. When this is the case, the rhetoric about the use of technology in the classroom will be bal- anced with a concern for ample supplies of crayons, paints, clay, and paper; the talk about consultants and advisors will be balanced with an adequate number of professional art teachers in the classroom; our talk about reproductions, video discs, and laser projections will be balanced with real artists and the forms they create -and most important, the wonder and mystery of art, the joy of creation will have its focus in what students do.

Jerome J. Hausman, Editor

Art EducatiornJuly 1992 5

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