It’s music to my ears. House Bill 393, an act to establish a commission to create the Creative Challenge Index, was favorably released by the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Education Committee in January. Rep. Dan Bosley, Chairman of the House Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, and lead sponsor of the bill, said “The Creative Challenge Index will establish incentives for schools to foster creative skills through arts education and other creative educational opportunities.”
According to a coalition of researchers, 81 percent of corporate leaders in America say that “creativity is an essential skill for the 21st-century workforce.” In addition to creativity, these business leaders look for such skills as collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking, and oral communication. As the authors of the bill described:
We have proposed a bill that creates a new measure of accountability for schools in Massachusetts. With the Creative Challenge Index, a commission – comprising legislators, and business and community leaders working with the Department of Education and education leaders – would establish an index to measure how many opportunities schools provide for students to engage in the practice of creative work – taking a project from inspiration to revision to fruition. Through the index, schools can be rewarded for creative opportunities.
Schools that provide opportunities for creative work in the arts, music, drama, and dance would rise in the Index. So would schools that engage students in a broad range of creative activities, such as science fair projects, debate club, fashion design, filmmaking, or architecture.
Anita Walker, executive director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, said, “We are excited to see this innovative piece of legislation move forward. Once in place, the Creative Challenge Index will help put Massachusetts in a leadership position in developing creative minds for the creative economy.”
Dan Hunter, executive director of that Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities, added, “Creativity and innovation must be a Massachusetts priority-in our schools, in our businesses and in our communities.”
The Boston Globe published a piece on the bill which can be viewed by clicking here.
This notion of pushing the arts in public schools derives from the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In Chapter V, Section II, entitled, the Encouragement of Literature, etc., it reads:
Wisdom, and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of this commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them; especially the university at Cambridge, public schools and grammar schools in the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions, rewards and immunities, for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings; sincerity, good humor, and all social affections, and generous sentiments among the people.
This piece is a refreshing change from the litany of legislation which encourages “teaching to tests” at the expense of the arts.
