S.T.E.M vs S.T.E.A.M
In the last couple of years great emphasis placed put on the S.T.E.M subjects in education. (Science – Technology – Engineering – Mathematics). This is understandable. The US is way behind
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) has assessed 15-year-olds in dozens of developed and developing countries. The most recent PISA results, from 2012, placed the U.S. an unimpressive 35th out of 64 countries in math and 27th in science.
Technology without humanity is calamity.
Reference below.
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This being the situation, we must remember that this is a measure of human capability. Our central capability as humans is the ability to create, be creative. When we think of creative people, probably the first thought is artists. Artists are obviously creative.
Without our creative capability we can not do well in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Many mathematicians refer to math as being beautiful.
Art has been around almost since humankind has walked the earth. We see this in cave art and jewelry. If art was not important in the evolution of humankind, it would have not advanced or disappeared. Obviously, it has not. Instead it has flourished become broad and deep. With this being obvious, why would we exclude forms of art in human education? There are some who promote another acronym for education, S.T.E.A.M. They have added “A” for art.
Art is a creative process. (I think that’s why we call it art.) Because of art’s creative quality, the study and employment of art is essential in schooling. It develops and enhances a person’s creative process. The creative process of art, once in play, doesn’t stop at the border of “art” world. This border is porous and the practice of creativity in arts slips through and produces a mindset of creativity in all other areas of life. These include marriage, family, health, safety, business, government, science, medicine, communication, interpersonal skills, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“Why do humans do science?
Why do humans do art?
There are things that are least important to our survival are the very things that make us human.”
Savas Dimopoulos
Greek-American Particle physicist at Stanford University (b.1952)
Examples of art’s influences
Singing
Singing in groups brings about community. Up until the 1950s, people in the United States communities frequently gathered around pianos to sing in harmony. In today’s popular music, the solo voice is dominant. The strength of a community is the strength of human relationships. This is the bedrock of social harmony. All endeavors, whether social or technological, function much better in cooperative teams.
Singing can express emotions that speaking cannot. Emotions are central to human existence. Through singing, we learn to express ourselves. It can get us by our shyness. Humankind has sung through all its existence. Voice is the original instrument. Humans made instruments mimic the human voice. It is not the other way around. The human voice is the only instrument that almost anyone can play.
Singing in a solo performance develops self-confidence for public speaking.
Singing from birth through adulthood assists in learning languages later in life. It teaches us ear/throat & mouth coordination as baseball teaches us eye/hand coordination. This certainly helped me learning two Asian tonal languages. Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, Laotian and the Chinese language are tonal languages. The word ‘ma’ in the Vietnamese language can be pronounced with any one of six different tones that impart six different meanings. They are “ghost”, “horse”, “mother’, “rice seedling”, “which” and “tomb.” With the wrong tone, a mother could be called a horse. Not so cool.
Studies show that languages can be learned more readily by singing the word than rhythmically speaking it or using it in a conversational tone. Type “singing to learn a language” in your search engine.
People with Parkinson’s disease have a great challenge to speak but for some reason they don’t have a challenge singing. Art has an effect on the brain.
Drawing - Painting - Photography - Sculpting
The ability to visualize and communicate through visual medium is central in all paths of life. Inventors, engineers, architects, clothing designers, and those that build flow charts must have the ability to render visual representations of ideas and concepts to develop, refine and communicate.
We humans are predominately visual beings. Even the cave people drew on walls. It was the first PowerPoint™. This goes back as far as 40,000 years. It is when then became truly human by expressing themselves. If art weren’t important to human evolution, it would have phased it out long ago.
“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”
Dorthea Lange
Influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, (1895 1965)
In my own experience I firmly believe that my early years of photography have taught me how to see; how to become an observer and make connections. There can be no creativity without diversity. This being said, if we don’t see the everyday diversity we can’t see the connection that are required to be creative. Decisions in all walks of life are only as good as the information on which they are bases. Much of this comes from observation.
Writing
Most of us don’t think of writing as an art and then we just have to hear the name “Shakespeare”. The art of writing is the art of written communication. This applies to all areas of human endeavors; health, education, law, business correspondence and interpersonal relationships. I am still working on my ‘art’.
Poetry
The gift of poetry is the gift of being able to eloquently apply and powerfully express ideas and concepts in diplomacy, business, and religion – reach between people – and do it in a fashion that a dry document or speech cannot.
Stage Performance
The experience of performing in amateur plays directly transfers to better public speaking and confidence. This is an important capability in business, government and many other arenas of life. Then there is the intense teamwork where collaboration is central and is not a contact sport. Collaboration is essential in life. No one is as smart as everyone.
Dancing
Years of ballroom dancing provides us an understanding of two minds working as one through communication. Then there is balance, flexibility, timing, and intensive mind activity for coordination. It also engenders highly valuable interpersonal skills. Partner-dancing, is physical, mental and social exercise.
Additionally (http://socialdance.stanford.edu/syllabi/smarter.html) The Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City found that the only physical activity to offer the greatest protection against dementia was frequent partner dancing. Their study reports that it has a 76% protection effect. This is followed up by a study by the New England Journal of Medicine. Social partner dancing requires mental, physical and social interplay. This is certainly good for our brains and the ability to think. Brain health is required for STEM subjects.
I am a member of the large dance community in Houston. I have known these findings for years. Only last week did it strike me. With the close-knit aspect of the dance community where you hear all the gossip, I haven’t heard of even one of the older dancers that contracted and dropped out because of dementia. Some of the dancers are in their 90’s. Dancing is a mental, physical and social exercise. I know this is not a scientific study, a personal anecdote really but…. It seems to fit with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s finding…. Hummmmmm….
Dancing has enriched and protected me all through my active life (began when I was 14) to into my 70’s. In my late 60’s, through dance, I quickly recovered from three left hip surgeries because of a broken leg. It was my only physical therapy. It is common for people to under-guess my age by 15 years; the health aspect. I lucked out. I have never danced with health as a goal.
Musical Instruments
Playing musical instruments over a span of time subliminally teaches us that practice has observable value that applies to all we learn in life. It also teaches us how to work in concert with others. (Pun intended.) This is certainly valuable in later collaborations of family, community and business teams.
“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein played the violin.
El Sistema
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El Sistema is program that began in Venezuela in 1975 by an economist José Antonio Abreu. It is now a foundation that watches over 125 youth orchestras.
From Wikipedia .
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“The organization has 31 symphony orchestras, and between 310,000 to 370,000 children attend its music schools around the country. 70 to 90 percent of the students come from poor socio-economic backgrounds”
“On 6 June 2007, the Inter-American Development Bank announced the granting of a US$150 million loan for the construction of seven regional centers of El Sistema throughout Venezuela. Many bankers within the IDB originally objected to the loan on the grounds that classical music is for the elite. In fact, the bank has conducted studies on the more than two million young people who have been educated in El Sistema which link participation in the program to improvements in school attendance and declines in juvenile delinquency. Weighing such benefits as a falloff in school drop-out rates and a decline in crime, the bank calculated that every dollar invested in El Sistema was reaping about $1.68 in social dividends.”
The U.S. has almost one hundred programs, many with multiple sites, and there are about one thousand Sistema-inspired program sites in 55 countries, including all continents except Antarctica. All are aligned with the fundamental principles of El Sistema as developed in Venezuela.
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Our education systems do not teach us how to have a good life;
and it’s all about life.
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Correlation between Art & Science?
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Albert Einstein played the violin. Max Born, a friend of Albert Einstein was both a mathematician and physicist who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics, was an accomplished pianist. He played sonatas with he friend. Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist, was on a national champion Latin ballroom team while attending college. I would be interested in how many noted scientists were or are also engaged or entwined in some form of art. It would make a fascinating research piece. It would be interesting to look for a correlation.
Or, in the other direction; I wonder how many artists are fascinated by science. Even the painter pays attention to the viscosity of the paint he or she is using; the sculpture the hardness of different types of stone and the incident angle of the chisel; the composer in the math of meter.
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Curiosity is an emotion
Art is the manifestation of emotion Genius is art in an endeavor Genius in science is art
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Creativity
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Art is an act of creativity; nothing less. We want our children to have lives filled with creativity. Art provides this path. As with anything practiced; the more people are involved in creative pursuits, they more creative they will become. Children will need this ability to create new solutions to overcome challenges for themselves and their families as they go on into the rapidly changing world. Only the process of questioning creates solutions (answers). Artists, by definition, are creators
Emotion & Passion
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Art is the positive expression and exercise of emotion.
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Though last mentioned, but of first importance, is that art is the exercise of positive emotion. Emotion makes us human. The more we exercise the positive side of emotion the better we are in all life endeavors. Those in art are by nature passionate about what they do. Passion from art transfers easily to other areas in life and academia.
Humanity
When you take fulfillment, meaning, passion, imagination out of education you are taking not just out the study of humanities, you are taking it out of science. Science is all about the passion to discover. Passion is a human quality. There is no advancement without passion. Why would we take the humanity out of education by relegating the study of humanities to a lower class of education? Our existence is all about being human; by humans for humans. Even the natural environment is for humans.
