Vocational Education and the Arts Education: An Important Synergy.

Overview & Synopsis

Courses in the arts should be part of the vocational curriculum. Not only is knowledge of the arts basic to what it means to be an educated person, but the way arts courses are taught also has a natural synergy with vocational education. Arts education naturally embraces methods that are characteristic of high-performance schools. For example, art departments often accept and evaluate students on the basis of portfolios and auditioned performances. In addition, coaching and assessing progress are done continuously in the midst of practice, performance, or critiques. Arts education can help prepare young people in vocational education to become tomorrow's employees and entrepreneurs. A postindustrial society increasingly requires that workers at all levels be creative thinkers, problem solvers, able to work well with others as well as independently, and arts education offers possibilities to complement and supplement training in these skills. The inclusion of arts in education can help to impart the knowledge, insights, and ways of learning that children need to become whole human beings and compete effectively in the world economy. (KC)