Art Education Benefits

I wholeheartedly agree with Tom Plate’s Dec. 2 column highlighting Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl’s efforts to require a course in fine arts for high school graduation, because an education in the arts develops some of the essential capacities California students need to successfully compete for jobs in the next century.

In classrooms across the country, experience has repeatedly demonstrated that when the arts are taught substantively they develop cognitive skills that enable students to see clearly, analyze, reflect, make informed judgments and link information from diverse sources to generate new ideas--in other words, to think conceptually and holistically. James R. Houghton, chairman of the National Skills Standards Board and retired CEO of Corning, said recently: “The practice and study of the arts is far from peripheral and can be a major building block in giving American business the broad competencies needed as we enter the 21st century.”

Kuehl is to be commended for pointing out that an education in the arts can no longer be an adornment or an elective subject in the school curriculum. Those of us responsible for preparing our youth for the new Information Age workplace must ensure that a quality arts education is part of every child’s education.

LEILANI LATTIN DUKE

Director, Getty Education

Institute for the Arts, L.A.