Several years ago, a television crew from CTV went to Toronto's Jane-Finch corridor to ask the students of Westview Centennial Secondary School what they thought about a new program called Learning Through the Arts. Because the program -- bringing artists together with teachers to find new ways to deliver curriculum -- had been launched by the Royal Conservatory of Music (where I am president), I went along. Westview, located in a financially disadvantaged area of Toronto, is a cultural melting pot with students from more than 35 different national backgrounds.
The reporter's first question, directed at a slouching, seemingly indifferent teenager, nearly knocked me off my chair. "Has Learning Through the Arts changed your life?" the reporter demanded. I was even more shocked when the young man straightened and replied, "Yeah, I hadn't been doing my homework. But I'll have to -- because I want to go to the army and become an officer." Every single one of the students said that the program had changed their lives. They talked about having a greater sense of self-esteem and purpose, and a clearer set of goals.
That day taught me a lot. Last month, more good news came our way. A three-year national study led by Dr. Rena Upitis of Queen's University -- the largest and most comprehensive assessment of the effect of the arts on academic achievement in Canadian history -- found that across Canada, students in Learning Through the Arts schools scored 11 percentile points higher in mathematics than their peers in non-LTTA schools.
That's a substantial difference. It's due, I think, to the unique way in which Learning Through the Arts repositions the arts in schools. The program is less concerned with formal arts education; rather, it offers students a way to learn all subjects, including math and language, through the arts, by partnering generalist classroom teachers with musicians, dancers, songwriters, and actors.
Over a three-year period, teachers use simple arts activities as a means to deliver the curriculum in a vibrant, imaginative way. An example: In Windsor, Ont., a dance artist worked with Grade 1 teachers to create science materials on the life cycle of the butterfly and the frog. One child, who had been perceived as a silent "special needs" student (and therefore "unreachable"), joined in and astounded the teacher with his thorough grasp of complex scientific matters. His movements had such grace and sensitivity, his teacher saw him with new eyes.
The Royal Conservatory developed Learning Through the Arts with community-based artists and teachers in the Toronto District School Board, under the guidance of one of the conservatory's leading early childhood educators, Angela Elster (now executive director of LTTA). Backed by major corporate sponsors, the program is now in 171 schools in Canada, as well as in New York City and Stockholm, Sweden; it's expected to be used in London, England, within the year.
In a report released earlier this month by the Province of Ontario's Education Quality and Accountability office, it emerged that roughly half of the students in Grades 3 and 6 did not meet provincial achievement standards in math and language. While there were marginal gains in Grade 3 reading and writing, average math scores fell a puzzling three percentage points. Yet, some boards have trimmed arts programs and arts teachers in the name of cost-cutting.
Clearly, a curriculum limited to "core subjects" is not the answer. I fully support the notion of accountability in the schools, and the importance of tests, but let's think carefully about the means we use to attain academic outcomes.
When we created Learning Through the Arts, we sought a way to provide students with a broader and ultimately more effective education that would also allow them to explore ethical, moral and civic issues. It's important for our children to find a broader social perspective, so that they can find their own place in the world.
The superior test scores of students in the Learning Through the Arts program are important. But the program's real story lies in the transformations, personal developments and awakenings that take place in young peoples' lives.
In one Toronto school, a sculptor helping to teach the Grade 11 social studies curriculum asked students to research the 20th-century history of an Asian country, and create a sculpture with a one-line title. One student team built a sculpture from the fragments of a broken rice bowl, broken bamboo sticks and torn rice paper and titled it "The sorrow over the partition of Korea." That history class had a new, personal connection to their history curriculum -- and a deeper response to a human tragedy.
In a Calgary school, a singer/songwriter found a way to encourage a Grade 4 boy with difficulty in math. He suggested the boy consider the African origins of the blues as a way of dealing with life's difficulties. The whole class joined in writing a "Math Blues" -- timetables with rhymes about math. On the boy's next math test, he earned a perfect score.
In New York City, the program went into an East Harlem school that had been designated as a "failing school." Here singer/songwriter artists encouraged Grade 4 social studies students to warm up their bodies and minds with focused breathing exercises. Throughout the year and into the next, those same breathing exercises had the unexpected benefit of calming anxious students who were preparing for tests. And the artists who worked with this so-called "failing school" found that its students were not only not failing -- many were gifted composers and songwriters.
Such examples of student experiences in Learning Through the Arts classrooms speak to the value of the arts as an effective means of delivering a public school core curriculum. They also show how our schools can engage students and help them develop into the creative, innovative and imaginative individuals who will drive the New Economy. Most importantly, they speak to the arts as an essential force of social and cultural progress, a standard against which our greatness as a nation and as a people will truly be measured. Peter Simon is president of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and founder of Learning Through the Arts.