Kessler Anxious to Condemn Obama’s Commitment to Arts Ed

With the new “Race to the Top” guidelines only recently released, Richard Kessler’s November 12 article just couldn’t wait to forecast hypocrisy in the ranks of the Obama administration. The article draws attention to the new guidelines, proclaiming that they yet again label the arts as an outlier in what we consider “important” education. Kessler makes the claim that Obama has yet to actually improve the case for arts education, citing that he has done nothing but talk about its importance. 

But isn’t this something in itself? Perhaps Kessler is asking too much, expecting a reform in the most miraculous sense of the word–as a complete, immediate turnaround. As we constantly ask ourselves how to help the world grasp the importance of arts education, do we really have a right to be discontent with the steps that have already happened in the first year?  Like Kessler admits, the Obama administration has advocated the importance of arts ed more (and more rigorously) than any previous one; at the very least, the administration is raising awareness. I can’t help but think that, at the very least, some good will come of the heightened attention. 

–Chelsie