Education is about developing the whole child, and the arts must be part of the curriculum because they are at the crossroads of academic, social, and personal growth. As U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan highlighted in his recent letter to school and education community leaders, the arts are not extra, they are “a core academic subject and part of a complete education for all students. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act defines the arts as a core subject, and the arts play a significant role in children’s development and learning process…”

Global Partnership Schools recognizes the impact the arts have on student achievement, as well as the preparation of global citizens, and we support the rigorous, standards-based implementation of interdisciplinary arts and civics education in classrooms. We believe the arts open the minds of children and create an environment in which students find themselves as artists in a bigger world—where their own personality, their own capacity, their own learning ability is like a brush, and they can paint a new democracy if they really apply themselves to it.

The arts are fundamental to education and to society, and Global Partnership Schools supports an efficient and effective approach to utilizing community partnerships that bring the arts to the classroom.

-Dr. Rudy Crew, President, Global Partnership Schools