State school reform must look to future

An Oct. 18 Gazette editorial commenting on my response to the Republican education agenda contained some truth, some halftruth and some inaccuracies. First, I would support performance pay if it were based upon a 360-degree evaluation by students, teachers, administrators and parents, not just one administrator, and if there was additional funding to support it. The same is true for a longer school day and longer school year.

I am frustrated that as is so often the case with Republican education “reform” ideas, there is no funding provided for the costs associated with the mandates. I said nothing about an “extra” school year. And, I thank The Gazette for recognizing the constitutional right of school districts to direct instruction in their districts, another concept usually ignored by Republican legislators.

But, most important to me is that Sen. Josh Penry’s and Rep. Robert Witwer’s bill proposing graduation standards mandating four years of math and English, three years of science and two years of foreign language is old fashioned, outdated, 20th-century thinking. The most recent thinking, backed by research, data and experience is that we should not be going down this well-worn path again, this path of narrowing the curriculum, of forcing square pegs into round holes, of assembly-line students. That path takes the pleasure and the joy out of learning and teaching and leaves students who are bored, anxious, unengaged, rebellious. It will inevitably lead to more failures and an even greater dropout rate. It forces us to concentrate only on the “rigor” in the Bill Gates phrase, ‘Rigor, relevance and relationships.” We are in danger of turning the phrase and students’ perception of education into rigor mortis.

According to Daniel Pink in his book, “A Whole New Mind, Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future,” “The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind, creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people, artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers, will now reap society’s richest rewards.”

We are moving from an economy that is built on computer-like capabilities of the Information Age to a right-brained economy built on empathy, invention and big-picture capabilities — the Conceptual Age. Leftbrained aptitudes, the sorts of things measured by SATs and used by CPAs will still be necessary, but no longer enough. “Rightbrained aptitudes so often distained and dismissed, artistry, empathy, taking the long view, pursuing the transcendent, will increasingly determine who soars and who stumbles.” That kind of thinking is encouraged by the arts — music, dance, theater, etc. And yet, the Penry/Witwer mandate leaves room for only one credit in art.

In addition, given Colorado’s funding system and limits in the school day, there is just no time or money for both more math/science/foreign language and maintaining the arts, let alone any other subject matter.

All this comes at a time when districts across the state are cutting the arts, recess, and other areas of the curriculum to concentrate funding and time on preparing students to pass our high-stakes state tests. This is a misguided and counterproductive policy. Why? Because young people who participate in the arts for a least three hours for three days a week are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, three times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools, three times more likely to win an award for school attendance, four times more likely to participate in a math and science fair, and four times more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem.

Students of lower socioeconomic status who took music lessons in grades eight through 12 increased their math scores on national tests significantly as compared to non-music students. They outscored all other students on the SATs, and their reading, history, geography and even social skills soared by 40 percent (Nature Magazine).

Machines can replace left-brained functions. A computer recently beat the greatest chess master in the world. Japan, China, and India have discovered their engineers can compute, but can’t think outside the box, can’t collaborate and can’t think creatively. Those countries are now requiring their students to study the arts to strengthen their right-brained skills, as are the Netherlands, Hungary, and the states of North Carolina, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, and other forward-looking states. Computers cannot replace the functions of the right side of the brain — the ability to think wisely, deeply, to connect different ideas, and to integrate concept. Let’s not mire ourselves in 20th-century thinking. Let’s move Colorado into the 21st century and allow our students the opportunity to develop their right brain attributes. If anything, we should be requiring more arts to graduate, not more math and science.

Merrifield, of Manitou Springs, represents District 18 in the Colorado House of Representatives.