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Oregon Art Beat's "Teaching Creativity" program on May 27 was the best edition of the show I have watched.  Highlighting the decline in arts curricula and use of creative teaching techniques in our era of standardized testing is an incredibly important topic. I was impressed that the teachers were forthright in their views, while the narration left the topic open for debate.  In my view, arts and creativity (as well as physical education) should be on a par with all other disciplines.  My participation in these areas as a child and young adult helped develop critical thinking skills and self esteem.  Too often, there is an emphasis on competing with other countries in demonstrating our intellectual prowess.  We should always emphasize a well-rounded development of our students, which will result in improved reading, writing, math and science performance.

posted 3 years ago
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