Joan's comment about "more is

Joan's comment about "more is better" when it comes to arts education sits well with me. Because arts provide students with pathways to discover their world and the world of others while expressing who they are, their observations, thoughts and ideas in ways that transcend words and numbers, the more opportunities provided to students, the better. If the goal of language arts is literacy, and if the goal of mathematics is numeracy, then the goal of arts education is logically artistic literacy. For students to be artistically literate, one is required to engage with the arts through artistic processes of creating, presenting/producing/performing, responding, and connecting. This occurs most predominately in classrooms where arts is primary--but also occurs when quality arts integration is in place (which I view as quality teaching--how else do teachers reach all students, differentiate for all learners, and address Universal Design for learning...?). In school, after school, with the support of community arts partners--yes, more is better. Two websites to visit for more information include seadae.org and nccas.wikispaces.com.