Drawbridges and Moats: The Arts and the Middle School Classroom

Abstract

28 What motivates middle grades students? What consumes much of their time when they are not in the classroom? What do they study most passionately, most intensely, most devotedly? Those who know and teach in middle schools would agree that the culture which captures the minds and hearts of young people revolves around music and the visual arts. Young adolescents are veritable experts on their brand of the arts, as exhibited by their knowledge of the most popular compact disc or recently released video for TV. There may be a message in this phenomenon for classroom teachers and curriculum developers. Middle grades students can be motivated and educated more fully by consciously moving the arts out of the ivory tower, over the drawbridge, and into the world of the young. The National Endowment for the Arts (1988) suggests four purposes for including arts in the school curriculum: (a) to give our young people a sense of civilization, (b) to foster creativity, (c) to teach communication, and (d) to provide tools for critical assessment of what one reads, sees, and hears. All of these goals are compatible with the educational goals of science, math, social studies, and language arts. Furthermore, the middle school is a place where links subject areas should be explored. Interdisciplinary integrative activities enable young adolescents to construct meaning and make connections and the world. The arts give coherence, depth, and resonance to other academic subjects according to William Bennett (1988, p. 4). Language arts teachers, for example, are beginning to explore connections between the visual and verbal arts, seeing and responding, envisioning and composing (National Council of Teachers of English, 1989, p. 13). Although classroom teachers are not arts specialists, nor should they be considered such, they do have the opportunity to enhance their own subject areas and arts education in general by sharing knowledge and appreciation of art with young people. Arts specialists in middle schools can be valuable resources for classroom