It is not only about the Arts...

Launched in 2013, Code.org® is a non-profit dedicated to expanding participation in computer science by making it available in more schools, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color. Their vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science. They believe computer science and computer programming should be part of the core curriculum in education, alongside other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, such as biology, physics, chemistry and algebra.
-- Watch "Code Stars"
-- Code.org's work covered by CBS
-- President Obama does the Hour of Code
-- Hour of Code has won the support of many celebrities
-- Watch "Let's teach kids to code" - 2012 TED talk by Prof. Mitch Resnick of MIT Media Lab

The Space Between Seeing and Really Seeing

Flutist Jessica Sherer has earned a reputation for taking on many unique and varied musical projects. As an orchestral musician, Jessica began her career performing with the New World Symphony at age nineteen and has since performed with numerous orchestras across the US including the Portland Columbia Symphony, the Orlando Philharmonic, the Boston Civic Orchestra, Sarah McLachlan’s touring orchestra, and toured with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players. Currently she is principal flutist with Sinfonia Gulf Coast, piccoloist with the Albany Symphony, second flutist with the LaGrange Symphony, and performs regularly with the Spartanburg Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestra Augusta (read more here). In addition to maintaining a large and selective private studio, Jessica serves as the Flute Teaching Artist for the Atlanta Music Project, an "el sistema" organization dedicated to achieving social change through music. This is a presentation she gave at the 2012 TEDx Centennial Park Women conference on the topic of social change through music.
Very interesting - how learning music develops 4 essential qualities that will help kids succeed, independently of their social background: grit, discipline, ambition and curiosity.

Atlanta Music Project

Founded in 2010, the Atlanta Music Project provides intense music education for underserved youth right in their neighborhood. Another program inspired by Venezuela’s El Sistema, AMP believes the pursuit of musical excellence leads to the development of confidence, creativity and ambition, thus sparking positive social change in the individuals and the communities they serve.
-- AMP featured on CNN
-- AMP featured on Myfoxatlanta
-- inspiration for AMP: El Sistema





In 2012 the Atlanta Music Project students got a chance to perform "Another Brick In The Wall" with Rogers Waters at Philips Arena in Atlanta.

Everyone has the right to education

‘Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory.’
(Article 26, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948)
- visit The Global Campaign for Education (GCE)

Education For All - 2015 goals

Six internationally agreed education goals aim to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015.
Goal 1 -- Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.

Goal 2 -- Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality. 

Goal 3 -- Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes.
Goal 4 -- Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.
Goal 5 -- Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
Goal 6 -- Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.

- Enrolment in primary education in developing regions reached 90 per cent in 2010, up from 82 per cent in 1999, which means more kids than ever are attending primary school.
- In 2012, 58 million children of primary school age were out of school.
- Even as countries with the toughest challenges have made large strides, progress on primary school enrolment has slowed. One in ten children of primary school age was still out of school in 2012.
- Gender gaps in youth literacy rates are also narrowing. Globally, 781 million adults and 126 million youth (aged 15 to 24) worldwide lack basic reading and writing skills, and more than 60 per cent of them are women (read here)

Special Holiday Greetings

Harnessing the Power of the Arts to Motivate Children

Gretchen K. Williams is the Albuquerque Director of Development for the National Dance Institute of New Mexico. Before coming to New Mexico in 2005, Gretchen worked with Richmond Ballet in Virginia. During her tenure, she secured more than $9 million in contributions. Williams' devotion to the arts and dance began early in life. NDI New Mexico was founded with the knowledge that the arts have a unique power to engage and motivate children. The purpose of their distinctive programs is to help children develop discipline, a standard of excellence, and a belief in themselves that will carry over into all aspects of their lives.

Closing the Gap

What can be done to help students achieve success? NYU professor Pedro Noguera discusses education's most pressing problems. Dr. Noguera appears as a regular commentator on educational issues on CNN, National Public Radio, and other national news outlets. From 2009 - 2012 he served as a Trustee for the State University of New York (SUNY) as an appointee of the Governor.
This relates specifically to the United States, but Noguera's reflections can be globally relevant.
Very interesting. 

Education for everyone

Salman Khan is a Bangladeshi-American educator, entrepreneur, and former hedge fund analyst. He is the founder of the Khan Academy, a free online education platform and nonprofit organization. From a small office in his home, Khan has produced more than 4,800 video lessons teaching a wide spectrum of academic subjects, mainly focusing on mathematics and sciences. As of September 24, 2014, the Khan Academy channel on YouTube attracted 2,201,162 subscribers and the Khan Academy videos had been viewed nearly 492 million times.
-- READ "Khan Academy founder has two big ideas for overhauling higher education in the sciences" on VB News
-- WATCH Education for everyone: An interview with Sal Khan
-- READ "How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education"
-- READ "V.F. Portrait: Salman Khan"
-- WATCH Let's use video to reinvent education (2011 TED talk)

Netflix’s Reed Hastings and Khan Academy's Salman Khan on the Future of Education

Why Do We Remember Old Pop Songs But Forget Where Our Keys Are?

Daniel Levitin of McGill University looks at why music has a special power over our minds. Part 2 of Unlocking the Secrets and Powers of the Brain, sponsored by the NSF, The Franklin Institute, and DISCOVER magazine.

The Music Instinct

The Music Instinct: Science and Song explores ground-breaking science revealing the power of music and its connection with the body, the brain and the world of nature. The film deals with research, showing music can heal as well as its potential for education.

Creativity Matters

“If we connect to the world around us, it won’t just be a life of passion but a world of compassion, a world where we look out for each other, where we create conditions where we can all flourish, a world indeed where we all want to live. There is no guarantee of all of these things but if we believe more in ourselves and in the power of the people around us there is every chance we will create the future and a world we’d like to be part of."
World Merit is a global platform for talented and collaborative youth, which strives to connect talent with opportunity. With a mix of humor and sincerity Sir Ken Robinson puts into perspective the worlds current population and possible problems. He also highlights the importance of finding our own talent because only then we can be truly good at something.

Creative thinking - how to get out of the box

"If the environment punishes mistakes, you will never be tempted to go out of the box."
Giovanna Corazza is a full-time professor at the Alma Mater Studiorum at the University of Bologna, a member of the Executive Council, and the founder of the Marconi Institute of Creativity. He teaches science and the applications of creative thinking. Why/Which/How/Where/What/When/Experiment­. A quick jump out of the box is more insightful than a lifetime of standard thinking.
Interesting talk.

Such a great school choir

The PS22 Chorus is an elementary school chorus from Public School 22 in Graniteville, Staten Island (New York). It is composed of 60-70 fifth-graders, and is directed by Gregg Breinberg.
-- watch intro video

Teaching art or teaching to think like an artist?

What is the purpose and value of Art education in the 21st Century? Cindy Foley makes the case the Art’s critical value is to develop learners that think like Artists which means learners who are creative, curious, that seek questions, develop ideas, and play. For that to happen society will need to stop the pervasive, problematic and cliché messaging that implies that creativity is somehow defined as artistic skill. This shift in perception will give educators the courage to teach for creativity, by focusing on three critical habits that artist employ, 1. Comfort with Ambiguity, 2. Idea Generation, and 3. Transdisciplinary Research. This change can make way for Center’s for Creativity in our schools and museums where ideas are king and curiosity reigns.
Cindy Meyers Foley is the Executive Assistant Director and Director of Learning and Experience at the Columbus Museum of Art. Foley worked to reimagine the CMA as a 21st century institution that is transformative, active, and participatory. An institution that impacts the health and growth of the community by cultivating, celebrating and championing creativity.
Interesting presentation.

What difference does it make?

In celebration of its 15th anniversary, Red Bull Music Academy has teamed up with award-winning director Ralf Schmerberg to create a full-length feature film. What Difference Does It Make? A Film About Making Music includes Brian Eno, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Giorgio Moroder, Nile Rodgers, Richie Hawtin, James Murphy and many more talking about the ups and downs of a life devoted to music. Shot at the 2013 Red Bull Music Academy in New York and produced by Schmerberg’s Berlin-based artist collective Mindpirates, the film focuses in on the creative process – but ends up asking questions about life itself. Following the young artists attending the Academy as well as featuring talking head interviews with musicians who have seen the twists and turns of the music industry, What Difference Does It Make? A Film About Making Music is full of (direct and indirect) insights. The overlying message of the film seems to be that it's the process of creation that really matters, more so than the actual music itself.
-- Watch full movie here

The Virtual Choir

In a moving and madly viral 2010 video, composer Eric Whitacre led a virtual choir of singers from around the world. In this TED presentation he talks through the creative challenges of making music powered by YouTube, and unveils the first 2 minutes of his new work, "Sleep,"(2011) with a video choir of 2,052. In 2013 came Virtual Choir 4: Fly to Paradise and here the numbers are astonishing: 8,409 video submissions from 101 countries, truly a global choir --- fascinating...
-- read on Huffington Post - TED weekends
-- read about the Virtual Youth Choir

Standing Up to Poverty

“The assumption is that schools can solve all of these problems on their own.”
-- Jeff Cole, Community Learning Center Network Lead, NCFF
Standing Up to Poverty is a documentary film produced by NET in partnership with the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation which explores the impact of poverty on a child’s ability to learn, and the notion that schools need flexibility and community support to overcome this hurdle and pave the way for their students’ success. The film looks at the ramifications of living in poverty, and highlights some of the ways Nebraska schools are addressing this issue. But perhaps most important, the film encourages viewers to do their part, whether by volunteering time or resources, or by sharing this film to help generate awareness and support.
It is about Nebraska but really everyone can make an impact in a community - everywhere.

We Are the People We’ve Been Waiting For

The world is facing huge challenges and they're growing daily in severity, in scale and in complexity. It's no exaggeration to say that they're not going to go away. Indeed they will get worse unless we can start to find solutions and find them soon. If we're going to survive we desperately need the next generations to be smarter, more adaptable and better prepared than any that have gone before. Our only chance is to improve the way we teach our young. To equip young people with the skills and attitudes that might steer this world of ours to a far safer place than at present looks likely. The question is... is that what our current education system does? What we have is a system that's shaped by historical forces, but they're now almost totally bankrupt as ideas for education of the 21st century and we're betraying most of our children. Public systems of education, paid for from taxation, were invented to meet the needs of the industrial economy that was emerging in the 18th and 19th centuries when we needed a workforce who can do those sorts of things. The high schools of today were essentially designed in the 19th century and they've reached their zenith in the 1950s. In the old days we said "one size fits all"... thirty kids, put them in a classroom, and then teach them the same material that they're all expected to get it the same way. There's tendency to look backwards. There was a golden age of education but schools became steeped in history and the past, in static knowledge, and failed to capture the "here and now" and often failed to prepare young people for contemporary society, for the realities of the world in which we're living. And even more significantly they failed to prepare young people for the emerging issues of our time.
We Are The People We’ve Been Waiting For is a 75-minute documentary feature which examines the worldwide crisis in modern education. It observes how millions of young people are essentially being failed by the system and explores alternative ways of tapping into the reservoirs of talent that exist in the generation that will inherit the very complex world we have created. The documentary is anchored around five young Britons in their final year of formal education. They come from Swindon, considered to be the microcosm of British life in the 21st Century. Here they have all had the same educational opportunities – indeed, they could easily have attended one another’s schools – and yet, even the most successful student exposes the depth of the systemic failure in education. Through their experiences and comment, paralleled with the views of young people from all over the world, we observe the depth of the issues associated with education and the challenge associated with effecting change.

Why Art is Important to High School Students

The author of this video (Christopher Sykora) sat down with some high school students and asked them why art was important to their education. Their answers illustrate the vital academic role that art education serves in the development of all forms of intelligence and social awareness. In some cases, students spoke about their artistic processes which delivers a small glimpse of the cognitive stimulation art education offers to those lucky enough to have art in their school.
Very nice.