school as you like it

Yesterday our ESSA director, Kelly and I met with the head and selected staff members at the North Arkansas Community College to begin the process toward being able to offer our ESSA classes for credit toward degree. Our objective is to make a college education, particularly in the arts, available to people in our small town. We seem to be well on our way toward that goal.

The interesting thing at this point is that distance learning can allow our local students to gain everything they need toward a college level arts degree except the studio experience necessary to get a degree in the arts. That hands on studio learning is available through ESSA, right here at home. For me, this will be the fulfillment of a dream. I have students in mind that may not choose to go away to school but can be  lured onto the path of college graduation by taking classes at our Eureka Springs School of the Arts. The added benefit is that having young people on campus will bring fresh energy and a heightened level of creative joy for those of us in the over 50 generation.

The thing about human beings of all ages is that we learn through play. Adults and children all learn in the same ways using multiple intelligences activated through play. University education should engage the same techniques as Kindergarten. Instead, many university students are crowded into lecture halls where they spend learning time removed from their most natural learning styles and checking their facebook accounts. My simple illustration is intended to describe the way that various learning styles are filtered out during the process of advancement through educational institutions. Can you imagine an educational method that left creativity intact, and what it would mean to the future of humanity? That was Kindergarten.

Today I have a meeting at the Arkansas Arts Council, then will go back home to Eureka.

Make, fix, create, and extend toward others the opportunity to learn likewise.