Academic Standards for Your Kids: The "Art" of Missing the Point

This letter to the editor was published in the Glasgow (Ky.) Daily Times weekend edition, April 27/28, 2013, page A5, under the headline "Academic Standards Missing Key Aspect."

Do the people who drafted the Kentucky Core Academic Standards document, who have recently been given serious authority to determine the ultimate educational goals of your schools, share your most fundamental beliefs about the world and life? Decide for yourself, especially in the Arts and Humanities sections, the sections that one would think should inspire students toward the most important ideals and truths we hold as families of Barren County. (Space here limits me from sharing significant quotations, but the document is easily accessible online.)

 Something huge is missing from this agenda. What should art education really be all about? I’m concerned about the way the KCAS writers limit the purposes of art to the mere feelings and emotions of the artist. Good art truly strikes us, often emotionally, but in doing so it should prod us towards reality that we behold as something ultimately beyond fleeting sentimentality and feelings. The KCAS document implies that graduating students need no comprehension of the difference between art and aesthetics. The word “aesthetics” is not even mentioned in the Arts sections. Aesthetics relates to the ideals and values that transcend the piece of art, the artist’s own feelings (no matter how interesting), and even the cultural setting from which the expression arises. One must at least begin to understand aesthetics—as opposed to mere art—in order to become educated. Parents must then develop tastes in their children that readily identify works of art that convey these universal aesthetic ideals. If you agree that you should do this as a parent, the people behind the KCAS don’t seem to be willing or able to help you.

 So proper aesthetic education, of course, requires judgment by families and the community to determine what ought to be preferred, and ought is becoming more and more passé when it comes to art, humanities, and cultural discussion. While the diversity of cultures in America must be taught and understood, the celebration of various cultures must be tampered with discernment. Some cultural expressions, especially in art, are simply inferior to others in aiming students toward what south central Kentuckians believe to be their highest ideals. There, I said it!

 Art best expresses such ideals when they move the souls of us, the observers, as well as the artists. The KCAS Arts and Humanities drafters—whoever they are—seem to care little for teaching the relationship between material works of art and eternal souls. In fact, the general KCAS document implies that nurturing the souls of your students toward transcendent truth is of little concern to the Kentucky Department of Education. Of course that’s ultimately your job as a parent. But are they working alongside you, staying out of your way, or are they hindering you? If they’re hindering you, it’s time to ask them why and ask yourself what you’re going to do about it.

Comments welcome, especially from parents and educators.