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Kamarck, Edward (ed.) / Arts in society: the arts and the black revolution II
(1968)
Bolman, William M.
Notes and discussions: [art education for the disadvantaged child: a neglected social necessity], pp. [500]-503
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Page 501
ART EDUCATION FOR THE DISADVANTAGED CHILD: A Neglected Social Necessity by William M. Bolman The major goal of this essay is to indicate an important but poorly understood role for art education in contemporary United States. This role involves the provision of essential missing cultural nutriments for the disadvantaged child. I hope to demonstrate that the need for this role is so acute as to justfy a sizeable shift in the emphasis and distribution of personnel and funding in art education. The bases for my opinions stem from three sources: Clinical child psychiatric treatment of disadvantaged children; interest in the art and psycho-social development of preschool children2; and experience as a mental health planner, especially involving the prevention of biopsychosocial disorder3',. Eisner, in a recent overview of the future of art education, stated, "Art education is inextricably tied to education at large. As society has altered its demands for and expectations of education, so too it has altered its conceptions of the functions that art education is to perform. The sources of these new expectations have been various. They have emanated from economic, social, intellectual, and political changes in the nation, and from the unique social evolution of individual communities."' In the United States now and for at least several decades to come, one of our most pressing social facts of life is the presence of large and ever-increasing numbers of economically and socially disadvantaged people in dangerously overcrowded urban ghettos. Less visible, but equally deprived groups are those minority populations living in rural areas. Both groups, especially the former, have begun to achieve a rapidly increasing share of national attention as our cities begin to burn and social disorder becomes ever more contagious. When the present national priority for war abroad shifts to concern over wars at home, there will necessarily be a redirection of our resources toward finding ways of alleviating the social threat posed by the presence of so many undereducated, underemployed, and disadvantaged citizens. The most obvious needs for these disadvantaged groups (Negroes, whites, Spanish Americans, and American Indians) are the basic needs for survival - food, shelter, clothing. The means for achieving them involves jobs, education, and equal opportunity to obtain them. Over this there is little disagreement, and the major differences are those of tactics and not of values. Nevertheless, deprivation of these necessities, however basic they are, is only half the need. The other half are human social values of many kinds, the absence of which is broadly referred to as "cultural deprivation," although this is a weak term to convey a sense of hopelessness, the loss of dignity and the meaninglessness of existence that characterizes much of ghetto life. This is especially dangerous for children growing up in such environments, as the evidence is now overwhelming that these children grow up without intellectual and social abilities to manage good jobs or higher education even with equal opportunities to obtain them. Although the figures are unknown, we know that roughly 20-30 percent of all children in the United States under the age of 18 are growing up exposed to severe poverty and attendant cultural deprivation. As a matter of social strategy then, it makes sense to devote a considerable share of our cultural resources toward correcting deprivation in this group, containing some 15 million children. The major social institution with the greatest promise and capacity for alleviating some of the effects of this deprivation is the school system, and American education today is alive with changes in the curricula and methods of teaching as it attempts to cope with the challenges of urban education. Unfortunately, many school systems and art educators have not yet discovered the tremendous, and I think essential, contribution that art education can make specifically for deprived children. Here, however, there is disagreement over both values and tactics. We are not used to thinking of art education as "essential" in the school curriculum as, say, spelling is. In fact it may not be essential for advantaged children as will appear later, but I believe it is for the disadvantaged. Because it is so recent, it is worth presenting some of the evidence. I 501 j
Copyright, 1968, by the Regents of the University of Wisconsin.| For information on re-use, see http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Copyright