Excerpts from the General Session Speech
by
Mike Huckabee, Governor of Arkansas
April 2006-Chicago Convention
National Art Education Association

Why Art Education. . .

Here's the tragedy. That which becomes natural and normal to every child is virtually programmed out of a child because of the way in which we treat art once those children get to school. What I'm here today to do is probably not to make a case for the arts, because I think that there's no need of that in this room.

Every one of you are passionately committed to the idea that every child should have an arts education. But what I would want to do is to talk about how do we get this country to wake up and realize that the dumbest possible thing it could do, in an economy that is moving away from a manufacturing economy to a creative economy, that the dumbest thing it could do is to make massive cuts in art and music programs.

And that the smartest thing it could do -- the smartest thing it could do is to realize that there's no greater investment in the lifetime of a student than helping that student to fulfill all of the gifts and talents that are deeply within. And that any student who is going to be successful is a student that will have not simply a grounding in math and science and reading, all of which I passionately push in my state as a governor, but I do not do it to the exclusion of the arts for the simple reason that we are not trying to create one dimensional children in a world in which they simply are programmed to print back what they have been programmed in.

What we truly need is a nation filled with creative people who have the imagination necessary to come up with the ideas that will build the next generation's economy.

On the Creative Economy. . .

I'm sure that most of you here have read Richard Florida's book, The Rise Of The Creative Class, and while you may or may not agree with all of the conclusions that Florida comes to in terms of recognizing where society is going, it's inescapable to recognize that we are seriously changing in our economic model. And that we are competing in a different kind of economy.

Tom Freedman said it best, "the world is flat, there are things that are changing, many of the jobs that we now have taken for granted are going to countries halfway around the world." We can wring our hands and talk about how terrible that is, we can try to put up fences and borders, or we can do what Americans have always done.

It's always had the resilience to try to be creative and come up with where the economy is going and get there first. But the one thing that we can be assured of is that it is a creative generation, a generation who can think, imagine, and create new things that have not even been imagined yet that will truly build the next generation's economy and give us any hope of maintaining our place as an economic power house. For that reason alone, there is a tremendous value in having an arts education for every student in America.

I think I could make the case to any Chamber of Commerce group, to any business group, to any group interested in the future economic viability of the United States, that an investment in arts education is valid and valuable.

But I would be somehow missing the point if I didn't also say that there is a tremendous value and validity in an arts education simply because without the arts, this would be an incredibly boring world in which to live.

And I always want to be careful that I never come to the places of saying that the only validity of the arts is that it has some kind of productivity model that the reason it is because it produces something of economic value.

Art For Art's Sake. . .

If you remember Eugene Levy's role in the movie, waiting for --I hope you have seen it. But in the little town in Missouri they're doing a play, and Eugene Levy who is the dentist who gets a role in the community play, makes this interesting comment.

And the tag line for the movie was essentially this: There's a good reason that some talent remains undiscovered. Well, maybe that's true, there's a good reason that some talent remains undiscovered. But I'd like to think that there's a greater tragedy when there's a lot of talent in America that remains untouched and untapped.

And unfortunately that's what's happening. In this country we put an incredible premium on the people who can hit a curve ball, and there's nothing wrong with hitting a curve ball.

But by the same token, there's something incredibly right about being able to hit the right note on a sheet of music. There's nothing wrong with a girl who knows how to pitch, but there's something incredibly right as well about a girl who knows how to paint. There's nothing wrong with a child who can perhaps find the right steps to make the soccer team, but there's nothing wrong for the student who learns the right steps so that one day they can be on dancing with the stars.

There's an incredible volume of kids in our schools who probably are never going to be football players or basketball players or soccer players or tennis players. But if somebody would just put a musical instrument in their hands, or a paint brush in their hands or a script in their hands, they've got the potential not only of bringing extraordinary pleasure, joy and empowerment to other people, but they most importantly have the prospect of unlocking something deep within their soul that nothing else will unlock, but their personal involvement in the value of the arts.

On Getting Arts into the Schools. . .

I'm fully convinced that the void of arts is primarily being experienced by many state budgets because the policy makers simply do not get it. They do believe that arts are expendable, extra curricular or extraneous.

And it is our job to make sure that they understand that, as the introduction said, and I often say, they are none of those things. They are essential. And they are essential for every student in every school in every community in America.

The problem is, how do we get from where we are where it's often simply an elective, an option, a maybe for a handful of kids in larger schools with big budgets, to where it is an absolute guaranteed to every student in every school in every hamlet across America, how do we get there?

And to be honest with you, we don't get there by simply appreciating the value of the arts. We get there when we get the attention of policy makers and elected officials in and help them to understand that this is an issue that is in sync with their best political interest. Nine out of the 10 parents surveyed in this country believe it is wrong to cut funding for the arts. There's not a politician in this country who does not understand a 90% approval of an issue.

They may not understand the arts, they do understand poll numbers and percentages. And we need to put that in their face, day after day and remind them that if they cut the arts, that there's only 10% of the population out there that really appreciates what they've done and they've ticked off 90%, and we're going to make sure that 90% know it.

On Advocacy. . .

I'm going to be very up front, blunt and honest with you. It is not enough to go to legislature and ask them to think about it. We need to kindly, respectfully, but forcefully ask of our governors and legislators that they include it in the mandated core curriculum of every school, because here's the reality.

We only fund what we force. Never forget that. If we don't force it, we don't fund it. And if we don't fund it, it doesn't happen. And the reason that we've got to force it is because then we will fund it. And when we fund it, it will actually start happening for those students out there.

It was a democrat legislator named Pat Bond who worked with me on our bill in Arkansas. We wanted to make sure that it was not only bipartisan, but that it included all kinds of folks, black, white, democrat, republican, because that is an issue that transcends all the normal boundaries of politics. You'll find people that you think would naturally be with us around, people who you think would be against us are instead with us.

Turn on that coalition and get them going, and get the legislation. States already have some that could be used as a model in your states. Go to key legislators, tell them that you will see to it that there are dozens, if not hundreds of art educators and art advocates, that are at the Capitol the day this is presented, that can generate hundreds of e-mails and calls and letters that are kindly and encouragingly supporting the measure. The reason that it is so critical that we not only have the curriculum that's mandated, but we also insist that it be taught by certified art teachers for this reason.

Source: National Art Education Association