Arts Education Quotes

"From music and dance to painting and sculpting,
the arts allow us to explore new worlds and to view life from another perspective."
--President George W. Bush

"I think the arts are perhaps singularly the most neglected part of our educational structure today. And there are some of us who really do believe that an education in the arts is not expendable. It is not extraeous. It's not extracurricular. It is essential. And without it, a student is not getting a full, complete, and total education."
--Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee

"According to the federal law, the arts are a part of the core curriculum. And one of the messages that we need to get into every one of the state capitols is that you have not done the job compliance with "No Child Left Behind" until you not only have fully implemented, but fully funded an arts educationfor every single student in your public school system. It is a vital part of what we must do in America today."
--Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee

“If you removed all the arts in the lives of our children…there is no way that adding more mathematics, increasing more reading programs, requiring more science, mandating more tests, or scheduling more computer courses could replace what they would have lost.”
--National Arts Education Association

“We must include the arts in the education of all students if we want our children to be prepared for the challenges of life and work in our global society. The challenges of today, and most certainly of tomorrow, require the abilities, skills, habits, and knowledge that education in the arts is uniquely able to provide.”
--Kent Seidel, PhD Commissioned by the Association for the Advancement of Arts Education

“The arts are fundamental resources
through which the world is viewed, meaning is created, and the mind developed.”
--Elliot W Eisner, Professor of Education and Art, Stanford University

“The arts must be at the heart of every child's learning experience if…
they are to have a chance to dream and to create, to have beliefs, to carry a sense of cultural identity.”
--James D Wolfensohn, former chairman of The Kennedy Center

“The 'back-to-basics' curriculum, while it has merit, ignores the most urgent void in our present system - absence of self-discipline. The arts, inspiring - indeed requiring - self-discipline, may be more basic to our national survival than the traditional credit courses.”
--Paul Harvey, nationally syndicated radio commentator