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Restoring a Type of Wholeness

I was delighted to receive the January MEJ! As one vitally concerned about the arts in education, I found the articles most stimulating and wish to thank you for this very special issue. A fundamental issue confronting the arts in general education concept lies in defining the role of arts specialists within the context of such a program. Some of these individuals who have given their energies and talents to creating viable instruction for students in a single art area feel uneasy about this new idea. How well founded are their fears? Are, in fact, arts specialists required for such a program? If they are, what is their unique contribution? The arts in general education movement is not only an interesting recent development in education, it is a logical reaction to the fragmentation and specialization that currently characterize our society. It is an attempt to restore a type of wholeness to the learning process-a wholeness that integrates cognitive and affective domains and one that will lend a degree of perspective to the introverted activity of education. In Man's Information System (Chandler Publishing Co., 1970), Robett Travers presents an image of the human organism as a composite of sense receptors that are not merely "passive systems waiting to be activated . . . but rather ... active exploratory systems that seek out information from the environment" (p. 6). The senses function simultaneously by reinforcing each other in this process of exploration, discovery, and synthesis. As anyone who has compared the experience of hearing a recording to that of attending a live concert will confirm, the latter is not simply an aural affair. Colors, shapes, and movement all bombard one's vision; the velvet seats are plush to the touch and a vague mixture of talcs and colognes drifts through the air. The audience creates and shares feelings of expectation, involvement, and, finally, fulfillment. It is this total sensation that makes the concertgoer return again and again to live performances when, for the same amount or less, he could have purchased a recording. Obviously, many music lovers need and thrive on such multisensory experiences. Many students also require and benefit from multisensory experiences. This is the best rationale I can imagine for an arts in general education program. It is interesting, however, that after acknowledging the senses' search for stimuli, Travers should add, "Unless the attention of the student is properly directed, he is likely to function ineffectively in the learning situation [and]... he may end up learning trivia" (p. 66). It is here that the arts specialist does not simply complement an arts in general education program but becomes an absolute necessity. If students are to develop their full range of sensory receptors, "make sense" of their environment, and learn to perceive aes-