arts education

Bluing

ArtsEdArn — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 09:53:38 -0500

A classic grade school science (or is it art?) activity calls for charcoal briquettes, ammonia, salt, water, food coloring, and bluing. What is bluing? Bluing is a dye used to treat clothing that has yellowed with age and use. Here is copy from the website for Mrs. Stewart’s Bluing:

Desertification

ArtsEdArn — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:07:29 -0600

Desertification, the degradation of arable land into un-arable desert, is an under recognized international crisis. “Chief causes are deforestation, overgrazing, overdrafting of groundwater, increased soil salinity, overagriculture, and global climate change, all fundamentally caused by the burgeoning human population.” (E.O. Wilson, The Future of Life, 2001)

The History of Homework

ArtsEdArn — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 05:16:00 -0600

One of the ways to understand the once and future role of the arts in school improvement is to poke around in the iconography of schools themselves. What is the history and meaning of bell schedules, of the intercom, of desks in rows, of asphalt playgrounds, of chain-link fences, of pencils, of erasers, of cursive writing, of blackboards, of whiteboards, of calculators, of computers, of notebook paper? Investigating the images and artifacts of public education maps the subjective terrain that arts education advocates work within.

Bela Legosi in the Daytime

ArtsEdArn — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:08:19 -0600

Bela Legosi’s Count Dracula, perhaps the most famous creature of the night, was filmed entirely during the daytime. The same movie set for the daytime Dracula was inhabited at night by an entirely different cast and crew to shoot the Spanish language version of Bram Stoker’s classic tale.

Plumbago

ArtsEdArn — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:28:18 -0600

Is there any lead in lead pencils? Not a bit of it. So why are they called “lead pencils”? Wikipedia reveals all:

“The invisible robot has disappeared!”

ArtsEdArn — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:08:07 -0600

Who knows what long term subtle brain damage is caused by falling asleep in the glow of the cathode tube rays of cable television? I do it often enough to eventually find out. I usually make it through half of the “Daily Show” on Comedy Central, and then wake up in the middle of the night to unfunny paid advertisements for various questionable products.

National Insecurity

ArtsEdArn — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:05:12 -0600

As part of my work in arts education, I spend a lot of time traveling to conferences and meetings in other cities, which means I spend a lot of time in airports. I love flying, but like an albatross, I’m fine up in the air, but all too often have an awkward experience on the ground. My departure gate is frequently moved at the last minute to the far other end of the airport. If I have a layover, I end up waiting for the shuttle bus to my connecting flight (boarding in a few minutes - the last flight of the evening), wondering whether it is going to show up at all, let alone on time.