Letters to the Editor

Murphy’s Fans

There could be no finer tribute to Jerry Murphy than your publication of his inspiring article, “Reflections of a Retiring Former Misfit” (summer 2009). Like Jerry, I retired a dozen years ago without a clear idea of my next steps. I had spent 31 years with the Committee for Economic Development, much of that time helping to enlist the business community in shaping education policy. Jerry promptly recruited me to serve on the Dean’s Council, and it was there that I developed a deep appreciation of his talents as an education leader and his uncommon human qualities. Jerry was refreshingly frank about the challenges he faced, and he used the Dean’s Council not as a rubber stamp for his decisions and predilections, but as a welcome source of outside advice. The experience was crucial in helping me determine how I would spend my own life after retirement: as a writer on education and an adviser on education policy.

Sol Hurwitz

Jerry Murphy, your tale is delightful! The wonderful quote from E. B. White speaks to a favorite of mine, found in one of Annie Dillard’s books: “The work is not yours to complete, but neither are you free to take no part in it.” As a fellow misfit of the same age and a few similar experiences, your words inspire me to fill out an application for admission to HGSE — not so much for the degree, but for the experiences that you have so eloquently advertised. Above all, your story made me smile. Thanks, and travel well. “Shout” you a coffee if you ever get to Melbourne, Australia.

Gerry Katz

Congratulations and best of luck, Professor Murphy! Thank you for being the wonderful and dedicated teacher that you were to me and to countless others. God bless you!

David Ward, Ed.M.’07

Hit or Miss?

While we applaud your decision to highlight arts education with Mary Tamer’s recent cover story, we were underwhelmed by “On the Chopping Block, Again” (summer 2009) — not because of its grim portrayal of school districts undervaluing and sacrificing arts, but because it overemphasized a model of delivering arts education in public schools that is rapidly fading. In so doing, the article overlooked many positive gains that have taken place in the field in the last decade.

The article was based on an arts education model that views the relationship between arts and schools through a lens of value deficit. Its underlying assumption is that school districts do not have the resources, knowledge, or desire to bring the arts into their classrooms. The only way, therefore, to ensure arts instruction is to rely on partnerships with external arts providers, many of whom willingly provide their services to schools for free or at deeply discounted rates.

This model, while driven by a sincere desire to improve children’s learning, is flawed. By framing arts education as charity, it perpetuates a cycle in which an enthusiastic teacher, principal, or district leader secures a patchwork of arts programming for a small number of students. In the event of staff turnover or economic decline, both schools and arts providers struggle to sustain the partnership. There is no infrastructure to ensure that arts instruction remains rigorous and integral to student experience.

In Arts in Focus, a 1999 survey of superintendents and directors of curriculum and instruction in Los Angeles County school districts, respondents were asked whether they thought arts education is of value to all students. 100 percent answered yes. In response, Los Angeles County developed and adopted Arts for All: LA County Regional Blueprint for Arts Education, a strategic plan to restore sequential instruction in dance, music, theater, and the visual arts to all 1.7 million public school students in the county. Its underlying strategy is building arts education infrastructure at the school district level.

The current recession has put Arts for All to the test. While Mary Tamer writes that “prospects for comprehensive arts education in most K–12 public schools appear bleak,” the situation in Los Angeles County shows the opposite.

Ayanna Hudson Higgins, Ed.M.’94, director of arts education, Arts for All

Talia Gibas, Ed.M.’06, arts education coordinator, Arts for All

I read “On the Chopping Block, Again” tonight and it strikes a double chord for me as I started my career as an educator in arts education — I taught creative dance movement to children while and after earning a self-designed major in children’s dance education. No matter where I taught subsequently, dance and the arts were always integrated into my curriculum. For much of my career I worked with students who were secondlanguage learners, and music, dance, visual art, and theater were pivotal to their success in English-language development. It also really hits home as a parent, as my child will be in school in a few years, and it would make me desperately sad if they she did not receive an adequate arts education. The article is a great reminder of what is important and why we do what we do.

Nell Forgacs, Ed.M.’05

It was an enormous pleasure to receive the summer issue of Ed. magazine focused on arts education. As cochair of the Graduate Arts Education Council at Harvard, I am excited to share and discuss the issues raised, which highlight the most salient subject matter, for our upcoming fall meeting. Acknowledging the challenges facing us at this moment, we follow Jessica Davis’ lead and “foster celebration rather than justification, hopefulness rather than despair.” The thoughtful comments solicited from present and former staff, council members, and AIE graduates confirm the signal importance of our work, and I look forward to this coming year as an opportunity for the council to work productively and energetically to develop strategies that will lead us into the next decade.

As a lifetime arts educator, with a 25-year career that has spanned leading a large private arts-in-schools program, serving as a dean and trustee of major private colleges of art, and leading museum education initiatives at one of the nation’s premier museums, I share both the hopes and concerns in Mary Tamer’s lead article. I have seen the fallow periods, and also the creativity that inevitably reemerges, the new ideas, the new commitments. After all, creativity is the name of our game — as noted, arts educators are mostly, if not all, also artists. (On that note, when I am not working with the AIE Council, I too work an artist — a memoirist and a poet! While my name does not appear, one of my poems, Reflections, is excerpted in the article about Sara Lawrence Lightfoot’s new book, The Third Chapter.)

Ronne Hartfield

Missed Mentor

We were quite moved recently to learn of the passing of former HGSE Lecturer Steve Truitt on March 10, 2008. For some of us, he and his Harvard Outward Bound Program were the reasons that we came to HGSE, and for others of us he became a central pivot-point during our stay. We remember fondly his cramped office in Gutman, site of long conversations, sparked by a book on the shelf, a recent trip, a mutual friend or admire-ee, or just the neurons firing. They were on “river” time and not “graduate student” time, and would last too long; one would see his “Everything MUST get done this month” sign, so carefully colored, feel guilty, and begin to leave. Extracting oneself would take too long, but finally his students would leave (not him), believing that the conversations would be continued another time. He practiced what he preached in his courses, enabling students to dig deeper into ideas about the role of challenge, risk, trust, and community in learning environments by allowing us to form a learning community ourselves. Having lived for 18 years with glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer, he made the most of every day and every interaction.

He was generous to everyone with his time and himself. He is missed. F

or information about Steve’s life and memorial, suggestions about donations, or to connect with his family, visit: www.caringbridge.org/visit/stevetruitt.

Holly Bull, Ed.M.’94, Jennifer Dorsen, Ed.M.’94, Laurie Gardner, Ed.M.’94, and Kevin Kecskes, Ed.M.’94