How to Invest in Our Future

Now that it’s August, and stores have been stocking back to school supplies for weeks, it feels appropriate to turn our attention to the academic year about to start. A new school year still carries a sense of fresh possibility, and we are especially excited about a new report issued recently by the President’s Council on the Arts and Humanities which strongly supports arts education. The report is titled “Reinvesting in Arts Education”, and while it’s definitely not short, there is plenty of meaty content to chew on.

As enthusiastic supporters of arts education, especially through our Poetry Inside Out literary arts program, we were happy to see that the report makes the case for integrating arts education throughout the K-12 curriculum, not treating it as an “extra”.

If you only read part of the report, the introduction by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is probably your best choice. It includes thoughts like, “Nothing—nothing—is more important in the long-run to American prosperity than boosting the skills and attainment of the nation’s students. . . . Closing the achievement gap and closing the opportunity gap is the civil rights issue of our generation. . . . Experiences in the arts are valuable on their own, but they also enliven learning of other subjects, making them indispensable for a complete education in the 21st Century.”

We were especially excited to read this, since we have seen for more than 10 years how students in the Poetry Inside Out program become more engaged, imaginative, and creative at the same time as they are learning useful reading, writing, and thinking skills.

You can read the full report here.

If you’d like to learn more about the Center’s Poetry Inside Out program, read about it here.