In the first of a three-part series on the National Public Radio site, Elizabeth Blair writes on Tuesday (4/16), “Over the years, there have been a lot of claims about the benefits of the arts on the mind: Listening to Mozart makes you smarter; playing an instrument makes you better at math. One program—funded in part by the federal government—is putting these theories to the test. The Turnaround Arts Initiative, spearheaded by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, is using an intensive arts curriculum to try and improve eight low-performing schools. They’re located in Denver; New Orleans; Des Moines, Iowa; and on a reservation in Montana, among other places, and they all serve students from poor families. Some were considered to be the lowest-performing schools in their states. ‘They were schools where kids seemed defeated and resigned,’ says the committee’s executive director, Rachel Goslins. …Walk the halls of Savoy and you might wish you’d gone to school here yourself. In one class, kids are learning to play music on new keyboards donated by Yamaha. A few doors down, there’s a movement class, taught by a professional dancer. Across the hall, second-graders are playing hand bells. … Most of the schools in the Turnaround Arts Initiative are also experiencing better attendance and fewer visits to the principal’s office.”
Posted April 18, 2013
