The Arts in Critical Thinking, or My Mother Told Me So

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were.  But without it, we go nowhere.  - Carl Sagan

My grandmother was a beautiful pianist.  I am the lucky keeper of her music books.  I never got to actually hear her play; she had long abandoned the piano when I first met her.  However, my grandmother's music continued through my mother's beautiful voice and love of music.  She never wanted to play the piano; no, that gene skipped her and landed in me.  But my mother would sing and sing; she taught me how to do the rumba and the tango, and we would wash dishes together at night with her playing her version of "What's that tune?" or "Who's that artist?"  (I earned a nickel for every one I got right.  I made some serious coin, which my sister and brother promptly borrowed... at a reasonable interest rate - but maybe that's a topic for a future blog post.)

My mother was also a beautiful artist.  She, like her dad before her, painted, and I would sneak out of my bed at night and creep down the hallway, silently planting myself on the floor out of sight so I could watch her paint.  I'm sure she knew I was there, and it would be way past my bedtime, but if I was quiet, she let me stay there and witness how she created beautiful paintings.  My mother was my first arts teacher.  She always told me that arts were critical to becoming smart and understanding the world.

I came across an article the other day, an education blog post, that I thought was quite true.  http://www.edutopia.org/blog/visual-art-critical-thinking-andrew-miller  The arts are a vehicle for critical thinking.  All of the arts are - the performing arts, the visual arts, creative arts such as writing open up worlds for our children that would otherwise be closed.  There's a lot of thought that goes into writing a piece of music.  There's a lot of thought that goes into interpreting a piece of music.  An incredible amount of process goes into poetry and taking a blank canvas, like my mother did, and creating beauty with oils (or taking a blank canvas, such as a sheet of paper, and creating Harry Potter [thank you J.K. Rowling!]). 

In this age of standardized testing and emphasis on math and science, we can't forget those who came before us, such as Leonardo daVinci, who bridged science and art.  And I'm reminded of the importance of the arts right now especially, as I write press releases and post wonderful news of the arts programming going on in the Robbinsdale Area Schools.  Every single third grader in our district will have the opportunity to see the Minnesota Orchestra in their splendor at the Young People's Concert in November and musicians from the Minnesota Orchestra are visiting all nine elementary schools in the district, preparing the third graders for their visit to Orchestra Hall. 

Although my home was filled with music, I never got a chance to see an orchestra perform until I was in eighth grade.  It's an event I will remember for the rest of my life. 

I believe that the emphasis of the arts in my formative years helped to grow my imagination and my ability to process through things in a reflective yet critical way.  After all, life is a series of sonatas, minuets, and rap songs.  It's an ever-growing album of photographs.  It's a series of novels.  It's how we imagine them, how we interpret them, how we drink them in and connect them to our everyday experiences that give us meaning.

Editor's Note: We want to welcome Tia Clasen to our Local Voices section and congratulate her on her first post. If you'd like to become a blogger, just email mary.costello@patch.com.