The decline in arts education in American schools is due largely to incomprehension regarding the role this branch of learning plays in the intellectual and educational development of children. Knowing and learning in art are different from these same activities in other areas. This idea is slowly penetrating the education field -- and as the idea of many different kinds of 'intelligences' takes root it becomes clear that they are served by different disciplines. But the problem is not limited to the general public. There is also a great deal of confusion, even among arts educators, over such basic questions as what is to be taught, who is to teach it, and whether children acquire skills from it that have broader relevance. Research in art education is slowly developing a new rationale for its existence on the basis of evolving ideas in developmental and educational psychology. But there is a long way to go in convincing the public and other educators that art education is a necessity.
What is taught to children in school is, generally speaking, what the society believes they need to learn. Education in the arts is simply not seen by most people as a vital part of a student's education. Numeracy and literacy and now science and technology occupy the privileged positions in curricula everywhere. This is not just because they are felt to be sufficient in themselves, but because societies are facing crises and they believe that only improvements in the quality of teaching and learning in these areas will save them. Writing of the situation in England, Southworth noted that these four areas are regarded as "essential skills which will contribute towards pulling the country out of an industrial decline and prepare children for the robotised technologies of the present and the next century" (141). In the United States Burton said that in trying to reform education the country has taken a leap backwards to the time of the Sovie...