Teaching Philosophy
In today's technological age, we seek to make things simpler, more uniform. Factory workers have long since been replaced by machines, which do their jobs more efficiently and for less money than their human counterparts. According to Daniel Pink, many left-brained tasks can be broken down to repetitive steps which can then be mechanized. How long will it be before engineers, lawyers and doctors are replaced by machines? Machines can not replace creativity, ingenuity-- things the arts teach.
The arts teach us to come up with new solutions to problems, allow us to become problem solvers ourselves. How else could a society move forward if not for new ideas? Isn't that our goal, to move society forward? Current educational standards promote uniformity, but what happens when uniformity becomes mechanized? Then the creative individual, the problem-solver, will be sought after.
The arts can be used to teach any subject, and for visual learners, the arts provide a new means of understanding. The educational system is realizing this now, with more and more schools becoming arts integration schools. The arts also aid in self-expression and teach about other cultures. Understanding the art of another culture helps us to understand that culture itself, and in a world where we are all connected, we need to be able to understand one another. As educators, we need to encourage acceptance of other cultures and other people, something especially important in a country that is made up of a wide variety of cultures.
There are more "utilitarian" aspects to art: graphic designers, directors, interior designers, architects. The arts drive advertising, communication. The arts provide entertainment. The arts encourage new ways of thinking. When many tasks become mechanized (for it is not a matter of if, but when) it will be the creative thinkers who drive the world forward.