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This is the Reading Instruction Show. I'm your host as always, Dr. Andy Johnson.

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The topic of today's podcast is language art. Now, the language arts is the study

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of grammar, punctuation, composition, spelling, and speech, usually taught as a

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single subject in elementary and middle school. This podcast is not about this.

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I'm taking a little bit different approach. This podcast is about language art

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with the emphasis on language versus the language arts. Language art is art that

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uses language to create an aesthetic response. It's the act of putting words

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together in certain ways to create a certain effect. Examples would be poems,

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comedy, modelogs, creative fictions, personal essay, song lyrics, autobiographies,

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memoirs, comic strips, podcasts, movies, TV scripts, plays, speeches. You get the

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idea. Words put together to create a certain effect. Now, the reality principle.

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In earlier podcasts, I've indicated that writing instructions should look somewhat

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like the writing that students will someday be doing out in the real world.

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In other words, writing instruction should reflect reality to the greatest

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extent possible. Now, in the reality in which I exist, I've never been asked to

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write a poem or to go back and add more details to a memo, to use adjectives and

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a report to make it more descriptive, or to use dialogue in my articles to make

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the characters come alive. I just haven't. Well, maybe if you had yourself more books.

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What? Maybe if you'd included a little dialogue on the way, people would want to

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actually read your damn books. Do you ever consider that? Well, no, because that's

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right. Never thinking. Just throw out all of those big college words on the page

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with your little citations to show how smart you are. My purpose isn't to sell

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a bunch of books. Well, thank you, Captain Obvious. My purpose is to create a product

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that teachers can use to help them teach writing. Well, maybe that's the damn

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problem. Let me ask you this. Any of your textbooks ever get made into a movie? In

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the reality in which I exist, most people use writing to transmit ideas

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efficiently and effectively. However, it is entirely possible that I exist in a

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parallel dimension that operates in accordance with a different set of

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physical laws. This indeed is a possibility. But whatever dimension in

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which one exists, writing instruction should have some resemblance to the

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reality that students will encounter in life outside a school setting. So, why are

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you writing this damn podcast? Why? I asked you first. Why am I writing this

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chapter or this podcast? Again, I asked you first. You got listening problems? Why

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are you wasting all this space talking about language art when most people don't

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do any language art in the real world about lives? While it's true that most

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students will not be doing language art in the real world existence outside of

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school, this doesn't mean that it should be excluded from writing

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curriculums. As a matter of fact, I strongly recommend that all students have

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an abundance of opportunities to do all kinds of language art. Every kind of

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language art should find its way into a K-12 language arts curriculum. Why? Three

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reasons. First, will liven things up a bit. Imagine that education that's not

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boring. Now, notice the different reactions that you have to the following

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sentence. Boys and girls, today we're going to learn how to write a five-paragraph

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essay. Can you picture anybody in your class getting excited about this? Now,

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consider this sentence. Boys and girls, today we're going to learn how to create

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comedy monologues. Totally different feel. Rule of thumb and teaching is this. If

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you want students to enjoy learning, create something enjoyable for them to

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learn. The second reason, language art is more likely to create the conditions

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whereby students want to write. Motivation is an essential part of learning of

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any kind and it's essential part of teaching writing. Now, there are students

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who hate expository writing, who seem to put forth very minimal effort for

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reports and other types of required essays and writing. But some of these

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same students will often spend hours with creative writing projects because

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they find them enjoyable and it fulfills this innate need to create. As well,

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students are often very motivated to write if they know they're going to be

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able to share or perform their language art with peers. And the third reason, as

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described in earlier podcasts, the same process used with language art transfers

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to academic and professional writing. Regardless of the genre or form, the same

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five steps are used. Pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and then sharing and

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publishing. It's all about the process. However, it's not an academic standard.

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Let me explain. Language art is an important thing. Language art is an

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important thing. However, the minute people realize something's important in

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education, there seems to be a sudden rush to create an academic standard

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related to that important thing. Students are then required to demonstrate

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their ability to perform that important thing and teachers are required to

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document students' demonstration of their performance of the important thing.

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But this is not at all important for something that's as important as

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language art. Language art is not an end, but a means to a greater end. The

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greater end being the ability to create, express, and transmit ideas efficiently

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and effectively. Language art is but one vehicle to help you get there. It's an

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important vehicle, but it's not the destination. Also, language art leads to

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other greater ends, none of which could or should be captured or contained or

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constrained by academic standards. These greater ends include understanding

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of self and others to a greater degree, exploring one's consciousness and

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unconscious, expressing or communicating ideas and issues that might otherwise

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lay dormant, seeing the commonality of the human experience, perceiving more

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fully and being more connected to the world, perceiving important, preserving

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important moments and ideas, and learning how to use critical thinking, creative

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thinking, and problem-solving in the creation of a product or performance. For

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these reasons and more, language art should be an essential part of all K-12

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curriculums, but it should not be included in any academic standards related to

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writing or English language arts. Language art is an important thing, but many

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important things exist apart from academic standards in educational settings.

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You can't standard your way to good education. So, let's look at the

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importance of art in our K-12 curriculums. Let's start with an understanding of what

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art is. Art is not something beautiful. Art is something beautifully described or

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portrayed. There are many instances of beautiful art portraying horrific events

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or ideas. Consider the many outstanding award-winning books, movies, TV shows, and

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even music portraying unpleasant events, but done so in a way to be considered

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art. Now, over the weekend, I saw the play A Soldier's Story by Charles Fuller.

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It dealt with the ugly subjects of racism and murder during World War II,

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yet the acting, the writing, the stagecraft was brilliant. It was one of the

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most beautiful works of art I have seen. Other plays like Les Miserables and

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Miss Saigon resulted in my leaving the theater in tears. Horrible things

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portrayed beautifully. So, what the importance of the arts in education?

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Let's take a look at that. In times of budget shortages, the arts are more often

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one of the first things to be cut. And I'm going to describe six reasons why

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this is to our detriment. First, it enhances learning. Every experience we

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have connects a new set of neurons, strengthens neural pathways, and expands

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our neural networks. Our experiences literally impact the physical shape of

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our brain. The arts use different parts of our brain than other types of

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cognition. New types of neural networks are established. Our learning organ is

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expanded and enhanced. More expansive neural networks enable us to learn more

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and to learn more efficiently. The second idea cultivates important

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dispositions. The arts cultivate cognitive dispositions that are essential to

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writing as well as problem solving in general and the creation of products or

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performances in all areas. These dispositions are a willingness to think

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outside the box and to imagine possibilities, an inclination to embrace

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ambiguity and an ability to generate ideas, to recognize multiple perspectives,

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and to accept a variety of resolutions. The third reason develops more complex

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thinking. The arts contribute to the development of more complex forms of

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thinking. Now in today's schools there's an over emphasis on convergent, logical,

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and deductive thinking to the exclusion of divergent, intuitive, and deductive

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thinking. Yet it is the latter, divergent thinking, intuitive thinking, and

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deductive thinking that have led to some of humanity's greatest innovations. The

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arts contribute to this. The fourth idea is understanding ourselves and others.

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The arts promote greater understanding of ourselves and others. They enable us to

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examine those parts of ourselves that may have been ignored. They give shape to

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the feelings and ideas rummaging around in our head and transforms them into that

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which can be made public. As well, the arts enable us to look more deeply and to

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see the greater commonality in the human experience, one that transcends time,

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geography, race, ethnicity, society, status, and religions. This deeper look

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helps us to connect with others in more meaningful ways. The fifth idea is

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self-actualization. The arts can become a vehicle toward self-actualization. Part

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of self-actualization then involves integrating the conscious and unconscious

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parts of one's personality. It's only by bringing unconscious images, wants and

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feelings to consciousness is one then free to act upon them. The arts allows

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these images and ideas to interact with other human beings and in so doing

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creates a more dynamic and more richly defined interaction between the ego and

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the self. This can all be done through poetry, writing, music, dance, the visual

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arts, drama, and last the sixth reason, our humanity. Art is an expression of our

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humanity. It's what makes us human. In 500 years, people looking back at this

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time aren't going to be looking at our spreadsheets or software programs or

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memos or our reports on grain exports from Bolivia. They'll be looking at our

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art. That's who we are. We are our art. By excluding art from our curriculums, we

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are excluding an important part of ourselves. Art textbooks as art. Finally,

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let us consider the textbook as art. In talking with artists and musicians,

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YouTubers, visual artists, dancers over the years, I've come to realize that many

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of the same processes they use to create their art are used to write my textbook.

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That led me to think about these boring old textbooks as a form of art.

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Textbook is art? What the hell? You got to be kidding me. Aren't you getting a

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little full of yourself? Just hang with me for a minute here. I'm going to

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make a point. Oh, I know all about your little points. There's nothing even

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remotely Mona Lisa like in this pile of word garbage. Oh, what about you? What

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about me? You only exist because I've strayed a bit from the technical into

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the artistic. If it weren't for this, you'd be just an ignored part of my

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unconscious buried deep among all the insecurities and neuroses. But I've

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breathed life into you and given you voice. You are alive because of me. Well,

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you do got a point there, Dr. Frankenstein. Now, we've all been forced to read

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textbooks that were definitely not art. They were cumbersome, unwieldy, boring,

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irrelevant, and confusing. There's no way we'd read them unless we were

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threatened with an exam. The authors of these textbooks didn't understand the

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art of textbook writing. They seemed to think of themselves as mere

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distributors of information. The thinking was that if they distributed enough of

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the right kind of information with enough of the right kinds of citations,

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then they would have written a good textbook. To them, writing a writing was

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simply a technical endeavor and their product showed it. They usually end up

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writing technically bad textbooks. There are other textbooks that strayed too far.

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They're too wordy and irrelevant. I find myself shouting at the pages, get to the

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point. Probably like you're doing right now. But all ideas no matter how good are

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irrelevant if nobody reads them. It's not just the ideas that are important,

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rather it's how the ideas are expressed. That determines if people are going to

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want to read them and understand them. Anybody can take complicated ideas and

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write complicated gobbledygook. It takes no special talent. However, a really good

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writer of textbooks takes complicated ideas and makes them seem simple. That's

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the art in textbook writing. Now, in the book that I'm writing about writing, I'm

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trying to make the ideas accessible to all. My publisher, Rutledge, gave me

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permission to write a different kind of textbook. One that includes a different

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way of seeing and understanding and thinking is designed to provoke both an

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effort and an aesthetic response. So in this way these ideas may be seen more

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fully and understood more deeply. Again, art is not a beautiful idea. It's an

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idea beautifully expressed. My textbooks may not be good art, but I'm trying to

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express these ideas, this knowledge and skill, in a way in which people will

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understand them and actually want to read them. They may not be beautiful, but

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hopefully they'll be beautifully understood. All of which to say that the

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arts, language art, is an important part of every K-12 curriculum and language

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art specifically should be part of every K-12 language arts curriculum. This has

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been the Reading Instruction Show. As always, I'm your host, Dr. Andy Johnson.