"...the essential drama of American education today...is about the unqualified triumph—of a certain way of seeing, of reckoning value. It's about the victory of whatever can be quantified over everything that can't. It's about the quiet retooling of American education into an adjunct of business, an instrument of production." This from writer Mark Slouka in his stinging indictment of the American education system
Dehumanized: When math and science rule the school.
It provided the seed for this Special Issue

An Embarrassing Surprise?
"I'm shocked, shocked to find that schooling is going on in here!" (with apologies to Claude Rains, Julius Epstein and Casablanca). I would argue that American schools have done such a mixed job in educating their students because they have been trying to serve split masters (as they have done since the days of Horace Mann).

Confessions of a Journalism Major
So President Obama announces new funding initiatives for math and science education, with hundreds of millions of dollars available from such organizations as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Meanwhile, the Washington National Opera—far from the first arts organization to do so, and certainly far from the last.

The Needs Study
It all started when the official said, "You have to do a needs study." These few, cheap words began a thinking process that has occupied my mind and time for months.  (Years?) The simplicity of the concept of the needs study masks the insidious nature of the needs study for the artist. In a very simple sense, no one needs the arts. 

Art On the Periphery
As a poet, I am intimately familiar with how people in the United States of America treat my artistic pursuit. Most Americans do not read books, let alone partake in the art of reading, writing, or listening to poetry. Upon being introduced as a poet, the conversation has gone something like this, "But how do you earn money?"  

Dreaming the Dream
An appreciation for a Picasso goes well beyond a superior aesthetic. One of the most telling signs of the lack of arts education in school systems and society-at-large today is the slow death of civility. At one time on this planet, when most human beings were slaves or serfs, the daily struggle,
the class system and organized religion kept people in their place.

Handbaskets
The masters of this society have decided we need low skill, poorly paid workers, docile, unable to think critically or read with any depth of understanding, easily distracted with scandals and shallow entertainments. Roman Bread and Circuses. Yet we retain the belief that the humanities are the yeast for a new rising; for better bread and more profound circuses.

In Fuller Appreciation
Assuming that noted writer and editor Mark Slouka's assumption about the arts and humanities is correct: his argument essentially being that the humanities have taken a backseat to the hard sciences all in the quest of retaining our competitive advantage in the global marketplace, what can be done if anything to remedy the situation?

The Flame of the Arts in Thailand
In the Thai education system, business administration competes strongly with science and technology for both government and corporate support. Money buys workers—these are the employees who get the high-paying jobs and the better standard of living. The lure is right there on the internet, on their television sets, in their mobile phones. คลิกเพื่ออ่านบทความนี้ เป็นภาษาไทย

Scene4's Next Regular Issue Online February 1st
You can access all prior issues in the Archives

Books  Plays  Poetry  Media

An exciting catalog of fiction, poetry and plays ready for production in an
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