Decidedly
Musings on decisions and factors that drive them.
Poets and Inventors
Fri, Nov 13 2009 12:01
Still life with art
Some comments against the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)'s support of the arts -- a recent subject of Seattle's Jim Tune's arts blog -- were painful to read. Those commenting seemed unaware of the many documented studies showing the interplay between the arts (as a form of creativity, expression, listening, observing, inspiration, or understanding of what it is to be human) and what those commenting were implying was "life."
Specific comments ranged from "The NEA should be removed from the National Budget... It should not be a function of our government." to "Fund education! We need people with practical, productive skills that this country can really use."
There is an acknowledged positive effect of involvement in the arts on students' higher overall academic achievements. Arts are critical in learning to listen, observe, write, think, imagine, invent and create. The ultimate selected "medium" for utilizing these skills in one's life can be in the arts themselves, or the sciences. Yes, there is a "spillover" effect of honing these skills into other academic pursuits.
Ironically, on the same day that I read these anti-art comments, Russia celebrated the 90th birthday of Mikhail Kalishnikov. An interesting man, who confessed that as a young man he only wished to be a poet. However, he deemed himself a "bad poet," so he gave up on writing and went on to invent the AK-47. Thereby, in exemplary fashion, pursuing the "practical and productive."
The juxtaposition of articles seemed so much more than just serendipitous! A key example of a creative and inventive mind.
At its founding, our government retained the right to use tax dollars to wage war. It also made a critical decision -- to use its powers and scope its responsibilities to support aspects of life that those wars defend:
"...in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..."
The arts are most definitely a part of our "Blessings of Liberty." And "securing" them does not just mean at the point of a gun. And, for those still having doubts, who knows whether or not some would-be-poet will become our next great inventor, or even a general?
Specific comments ranged from "The NEA should be removed from the National Budget... It should not be a function of our government." to "Fund education! We need people with practical, productive skills that this country can really use."
There is an acknowledged positive effect of involvement in the arts on students' higher overall academic achievements. Arts are critical in learning to listen, observe, write, think, imagine, invent and create. The ultimate selected "medium" for utilizing these skills in one's life can be in the arts themselves, or the sciences. Yes, there is a "spillover" effect of honing these skills into other academic pursuits.
Ironically, on the same day that I read these anti-art comments, Russia celebrated the 90th birthday of Mikhail Kalishnikov. An interesting man, who confessed that as a young man he only wished to be a poet. However, he deemed himself a "bad poet," so he gave up on writing and went on to invent the AK-47. Thereby, in exemplary fashion, pursuing the "practical and productive."
The juxtaposition of articles seemed so much more than just serendipitous! A key example of a creative and inventive mind.
At its founding, our government retained the right to use tax dollars to wage war. It also made a critical decision -- to use its powers and scope its responsibilities to support aspects of life that those wars defend:
"...in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..."
The arts are most definitely a part of our "Blessings of Liberty." And "securing" them does not just mean at the point of a gun. And, for those still having doubts, who knows whether or not some would-be-poet will become our next great inventor, or even a general?
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