Reflections on the Arts & the Nature of Education
by Steve Schuch

"I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength. It is more important to pave the way for children to want to know than to put them on a diet of facts they are not ready to assimilate."

           -Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder

Nearly forty years ago Rachel Carson expressed a vision of how we might raise children with a sense of wonder. Other writers and educators before and since have had similar visions. Only recently, however, have these views started to gain currency in our mainstream schools. Some changes are being seen in what is taught. Other profound changes are afoot in how things are taught and how we understand learning itself.

When many of us were growing up, education tended to revolve around memorization and regurgitation of facts. This approach made it easy to quantify the results, even when classes were overcrowded and teachers were overworked. Test scores appeared mathematically precise, even if we were not sure what the numbers meant. Unfortunately, this approach did not always “pave the way for children to want to know” more, or cross the bridge from knowing a few “facts” to grasping the meaning of the larger picture. In many classes there was no larger picture, or at least none that teachers talked about.

All this is changing. One larger picture now is that there is only one planet Earth and everything is related. Many teachers are working hard to create more wholistic, integrated curriculum and develop critical thinking skills. A unit on acid rain, for example, can easily draw on math, science, geography, government, language skills, and the arts. Students can be expected to go beyond definitions and causes, to develop higher level problem solving skills.

As a musician and author who works with children, I’m encouraged to see this happening. Educators and parents alike are realizing how music, stories, or a field trip can touch us in ways that rote memorization does not. Think about times that music or storytelling has deepened an experience for you or a group you’ve been with. It might be on a retreat or at camp, with your family during holiday times, perhaps a bedtime ritual, or sitting around a campfire under the stars. There are many ways the arts enrich our own lives, as well as our children’s classrooms.

On one level, songs or stories about oceans, weather, whales, etc., can be a fine way to liven up these topics and get some of the facts and terminology to stick in our minds. Such songs are easy to write with kids and are probably the most common “educational” songs one hears. Many of these are informational in nature; they inform us, sometimes humorously, sometimes pointedly.

Another level, however, is trying to get inside people’s imagination and feelings with more relational songs. One of the great strengths of the arts is their ability to reach inside us and develop an “emotional vocabulary” to go with our verbal vocabulary. A good example is as song like “Puff the Magic Dragon.” For two generations this song has succeeded at getting people to care what happens to an endangered dragon and his (or possibly her) friend Jackie. How many of us have wanted to write alternate final verses to that song? What is it that makes us care how that story ends?

In a sense, one goal of education is to inspire people to care enough how the world story is going that they want to “write verses” in their own lives. Information alone doesn’t do this. There needs to be a story, a relation of the facts to each other and to the heart. When people worry about teenagers’ apathy, or voter apathy, I think about Rachel Carson’s sense of wonder, an “antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years... the alienation from the sources of our strength.”

As a child, I was lucky to be surrounded with lots of music, singing and stories. A favorite book my parents would read at bed time was about a redwood tree. Dragons and reptiles were also very popular. Hearing these stories gave a wealth of vivid pictures to my mind’s eye, so that later in life, when I studied music and biology, there was already a core, a trunk to which I could attach specific facts. Once the trunk is there, it’s easy to attach branches and send out exploratory roots. It’s no accident that as an adult, I’ve planted trees in Peace Corps and written songs and poetry about trees. Also about reptiles and dragons.

One of Rachel Carson’s deep insights was that information, meaning, and understanding are not the same. Many educators (and newscasters, parents and politicians) are only beginning to think about the implications this distinction has for how we live and learn. In an age of overabundant information, we struggle for understanding. In an age of “virtual,” we forget the older meanings of the words “knowledge” and “to know.” We have more facts (more often factoids) barreling down the “Information Superhighway” than at any other time in history. Yet wisdom and meaning are in shorter supply than ever.

Wisdom, Beauty and Meaning
From tribal cultures and the ancient Greeks to Thomas Jefferson and John Dewey, thoughtful people have recognized the need for a well rounded education. That education included the arts. Why? The goal wasn’t just to get children into a certain college or career track; the goal was to have wise and awake citizens, connected to each other, connected to the earth.

Historically the arts have given us language to express the very core of our humanity. Our hopes and fears, our celebrations and mournings, our dreams and visions... these are the stuff of cave painters, playwrights and musicians across the ages. These are how we connect to each other. These are how we connect to the earth and our place in the universe.

Today, beyond churning out students with certified test scores, what cultural touchstones do we give our children? What are the overarching stories, symbols and rituals that help us cohere as a society? What kinds of citizens do we wish to have?

People who speak different languages frequently observe how certain words and phrases aren’t readily translated from one language to another. In some cases, the words and underlying thoughts themselves are unique to a certain culture. Now imagine if that language and culture were to die out. With their passing, the very ability to think certain kinds of thoughts passes away as well.

The arts are languages too, each with their own unique vocabularies. Through them, we are able to express thoughts and feelings beyond the realm of our normal vocabulary and syntax. For Bach, music was his language and his palette. If you wish to see him thinking, listen to his Chaconne or The Art of the Fugue. There is incredible mathematical structure underlying these works, and a richness in their “emotional vocabulary” as well. After listening to Bach’s pieces dozens or even hundreds of times, people still return for there is so much more yet to hear.

Without the arts, we become mute and deaf to an entire range of expression that is our birthright. Without the language of the arts, certain possibilities cease to exist because they are no longer even imagined, much the way modern physics wouldn’t exist without the language of calculus and higher mathematics to give voice to its concepts.

The challenges we face in this century will require all the creativity and wisdom we can muster. Global warming, changing politics and economies, learning to bring seemingly limitless appetites into balance with finite ecosystems... all these will require awake and thoughtful citizens. They will require diverse languages and rich vocabularies, both to form relevant questions, and to frame meaningful answers.

"Life is a Symphony, not a sound bite. Beauty takes wing in its own time."
-Steve Schuch

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
-Annie Dillard

"In the end, we will conserve what we love, we will love only what we understand, we will understand only what we are taught."
-Baba Dioum

Suggestions for Further Reading
Background
Reflections on the Arts & the Nature of Education by Steve Schuch
The Sense of Wonder by Rachel Carson
The Kind of Schools We Need by Elliot Eisner
Frames of Mind by Howard Gardner
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler’s Ninth Symphony by Lewis Thomas

Activities
Trees of Life Activity Guide

Recordings & Books
Trees of Life & other CD’s by Steve Schuch
A Symphony of Whales by Steve Schuch
Seedstars & Tomato Patches by Steve Schuch

About the Author (view full Artist Biography)
STEVE SCHUCH has delighted audiences of all ages across the U.S. and Europe. Classically trained on violin, he also is an award-winning author, singer/songwriter and storyteller. Venues range from schools and town halls to symphony orchestras and The Kennedy Center.

Haunting violin and whale calls... music and tales of Ireland... a pizzicato interpretation of a Picasso painting... these are just part of Steve’s wide-ranging repertoire. Honors include composer awards, PBS soundtracks and five fiddling championships. Steve’s recordings with The Night Heron Consort are national best sellers. His musical story, A Symphony of Whales, has received five national book awards, and his children’s recording, Trees of Life, the Parents’ Choice Gold Award.

For four years Steve taught a graduate course on integrating music and storytelling into classroom curriculum. A former Audubon naturalist and Peace Corps volunteer, he lives on a farm with his wife and various creatures. Personal interests include white water canoeing, Mexican food and relating to large reptiles.

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