Significant Postings from the Blogging Experience

I believe that Geralyn and I have links to some articles and web sites that effectively present material that supports our goal of demonstrating that the Arts are not just entertainment, but have a purpose in formal education and play a major role in society. The most significant postings, in my opinion, includes the first comment made on the How ArtSmart are you? posting made by jchabuc23. This comment gave a personal account of how this person witnessed the power music has to increase learning and memory skills. Another significant posting was the Believe in the Arts posting which included a quote by Dr. Terry Bergeson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Washington State, regarding the importance of the arts as “an essential part of public education”.

While I feel Geralyn and I were able to include some significant material that supported our goal, there were contributors that I personally invited who, though graciously accepted the invitation to contribute, never posted comments. One person is a music composer who was an educator before retiring. She taught high school chorus for a while followed by language arts and finally served as a middle school counselor. She is now composing instrumental as well as choral music while serving as a church pianist. I felt that she would be able to share a unique point of view on not only how music has influenced her life, but what role the arts played in the lives of the middle school students she counseled. Another contributor who was invited to share spent the first 20 plus years of his career in music education in the public school system as well as serving as a minister of music in several churches and holding leadership positions in a professional music organization. He is now an assistant principal of a high school and is in the unique position of having administrative influence over the arts within his school system. Another person I would have liked to have heard from is a college age student who is a former student of mine. Though she studied choral music with me, her main focus within the arts is dance. I’m sure she has been dancing since she was able to walk. I would have liked for her to share how her love for music and dance has influenced other aspects of her life thus far.

Though I didn’t get all the responses for which I had hoped during this blogging experience, I still think that this is a powerful tool and could be an effective way to discuss just about any issue imaginable. I sincerely appreciate the responses that Geralyn and I have gotten so far and hope to see more before this project comes to an end.