Thank you Norm for attending this meeting.  So many meetings in Cleveland...and you seem to be everywhere, everywhere.  The Plain Dealer's article on Thursday is not so far removed from the topic of art in the schools.  I think of Art as a state of mind--seeing from multiple angles and realizing potential.  Our kids are the region's greatest resource.

Connecting bioscience communities
04/18/2007
BioEnterprise in Cleveland and the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse are collaborating to open a pipeline for bioscience commercialization and investing that could stretch from Northeast Ohio to southwestern Pennsylvania.

Norm,
and
Ms. W.  (Resepcting privacy)

Thank you so very much for coming today.  Your fresh voices, and succinct questions were and are, precisely the kinds of in-put and voices that we need to make our process real and grounded.  On behalf of all of the CMSD Students and Performing (dance, drama/theater, music) and Visual Arts teachers impacted by the crafting of this plan, I say thank you.

The Department of Arts Education of the Cleveland Municipal School District has a long history of interactions, involvement, collaboration and the seeking of input from a vast array of community partners, both arts and culture, as well as foundation and civic.  Inviting new voices, particularly voices that represent what I call the Gen X, Y & Z 21st Century Voices (regardless of chronological age), we hope, I hope, you can help stimulate, encourage, and sometimes even push and shove us a little to realize that learning in, about and for the Arts stimulates habits of mind, and patterns and capacities of thinking that better equips anyone, young student or old student, to think deeper, more broadly, be adaptable, flexible and open to change, creative and exploratory. 

These skills or characteristics are first and foremost of good arts teaching and learning, regardless of whether or not it is "integrated" at the service of improved learning in another subject or not.  Thus, good teaching and learning in the Arts, about the Arts, for the Arts, is worthy of study in its own right.  Among the several reasons it is worthy of study in and of itself is, it is one of the few subjects taught in schools, that when done properly and with full and understanding support, is all about the business of developing those critical thinking skills so needed for living ones life in the complexities of the modern world.  A complexity that requires improved logic, thinking and analysis patterns regardless of whether or not ones job is high tech computer something, or low tech manual labor.  We are all required now to interface with a much more complex reality and need deeper thinking skills than what rote learning can generate.

The audiences that RealNeo addresses and supports is one that is fiercely grappling with how we ethically make our way and re-create ourselves and our communities in the light of these new realities.  These are the kinds of voices we need added to ours. 

To that end, I strongly encourage you to come to Young Audiences National Conference here in Cleveland this coming Friday, April 27th at the Hyatt in the Old Arcade to hear Sir Ken Robinson, a wonderful voice for this broadened thinking of what is Creativity. 

And I also encourage you to continue working with us as we develop, rushed though it may be, the Arts Education Strategic Plan for CMSD.  I strongly suspect that this initial strategic plan will eventually work its way into other future collaboration and brainstorming efforts.

Karen M. Clark-Keys, Ph.D.
aka
KMaCK
Visual Arts, ICARE, Curriculum and Professional Development Director
Department of Arts Education
Cleveland Municipal School District
*************************************

Norm,

    Here is my recreation of the 3 Grids that I attempted to discribe in my comments earlier.

Keep in mind

a)  We're are being asked to think long term and short term, what do we want to see in existence 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, 15 years from now.

b) Life is refering to what impacts a students life outside of school / academic concerns.  Quality of life, life decisions and options, participation in life, life time working experiences and options, etc.

c)  Education is referring to the total overall learning package and process K-12 and beyond.  Arts infused, art integrated teaching methods, arts in the service of improving other subjects is most likely to be under the Education column.

d)  The MUCH missed, and often denigrated learning IN, FOR, and ABOUT itself is the Arts Learning Column.

The HORIZONTAL rows represent the issues and key questions that CMSD itself is looking at for the total and much larger Strategic Plan, of which each of the subject areas, or disciplines much make themselves apart of.  Arts Education is just one of several academic subject areas. 

To learn more about the larger CMSD plan, a starting point can be found at their on-line document at   http://www.cleveland.k12.oh.us/administration/CMSD_Audits_Reports_Invest...

Karen M. Clark-Keys, Ph.D.
Visual Arts, ICARE, Curriculum and Professional Development Director
Department of Arts Education
Cleveland Muncipal School District