Characterizing Artistically Literate Individuals How would you characterize an artistically literate student? Literature on art education and art standards in education cited the following as common traits of artistically literate individuals: •
use a variety of artistic media, symbols, and metaphors to communicate their own ideas and respond to the artistic communications of others;
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develop creative personal realization in at least one art form in which they continue active involvement as an adult;
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cultivate culture, history, and other connections through diverse forms and genres of artwork;
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find joy, inspiration, peace, intellectual stimulation, and meaning when they participate in the arts; and
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seek artistic experiences and support the arts in their communities.
Issues in Teaching Creativity In his famous TED talks on creativity and innovation, Sir Ken Robinson (Do schools kill creativity? 2006; How to escape education’s death valley?, 2013) stressed paradigms in the education system that hamper the development of creative capacity among learners. He emphasized that schools stigmatize mistakes. This primarily prevents students from trying and coming up with original ideas. He also reiterated the hierarchy of systems. Firstly, most useful subjects such as Mathematics and languages for work are at the top while arts are at the bottom. Secondly, academic ability has come to dominate our view of intelligence. Curriculum competencies, classroom experiences, and assessment are geared toward the development of academic ability. Students are schooled in order to pass entrance exams in colleges and universities later on. Because of this painful truth, Robinson challenged educators to: educate the well-being of learners and shift from the conventional leanings toward academic ability alone; give equal weight to the arts, the humanities, and to physical education; facilitate learning and work toward stimulating curiosity among learners; awaken and develop powers of creativity among learners; and view intelligence as diverse, dynamic, and distinct, contrary to common belief that it should be academic ability-geared.
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Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum
