_The Creative Wealth of Nations_ nonetheless essential to innovation, overall wellbeing, and even success (in whatever way this may be interpreted).* To stress the point, “there are other compelling reasons for arts education,” as Howard Gardner adds. “Among them are the likelihood that skill and craft gained in the arts help students to understand that they can improve in other consequential activities and that their heightened skill can give pleasure to themselves and to others.”<sup>66</sup> These qualities are often neglected in education policy, as curriculums follow the template of standardized tests.

_The World Development Report 2015 and the Role of Primary Education_ According to the WDR15, “Primary school is a formative experience for children and the nature of this experience can shape the mental modes that children will use in adulthood.”<sup>67</sup> Clearly, children do not interact with each other only through the performing arts. Sports and debates, for instance, also engender these interactions. But if dance, theatre and music do increase these interactions, then there is an added advantage. Since the “connection between horizontal teaching systems, in which children interact with each other and class discussions are an important learning tool and [increase] trust, [then this] suggests new policy options.”<sup>68</sup> Without doubt, a “shift in teaching strategies—incorporating more group work projects, especially in education systems that focus on rote learning and memorization—may be a promising avenue for improving social capital (Algan and others, 2011).”<sup>69</sup> But even if the arts simply keep children engaged in school, then there is reason to avoid pitfalls also apparent in the United States. Policy debates certainly ought to extend beyond enrollment and attendance if children are disengaged and not learning while at school. Mike Huckabee, a one-time American presidential candidate and former governor of Arkansas did something about this. “As governor, he pushed through a 2005 law requiring elementary schools to offer 40 minutes per week of music and art and requiring high school students to take at least a half-year of art, music or dance to graduate.”<sup>70</sup> Huckabee speaks his mind: The economy of the future, he says, will place a premium on creativity, and even scientists and engineers will need to be able to be inventive, in addition to knowing the periodic table of elements. ...

‘ A lot of education today has become left-brain only. All we're doing is . . . nothing more than data download: taking data from the teacher and downloading it to kids. And we wonder why 6,000 kids drop out of school every day and why so many millions more kids sleep through the day with

> * i) Consider this article: “Is Music the Key to Success?” accessed May 28, 2014, <u>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/opinion/sunday/is-music-the-key-to-success.html?_r=0.</u> ii) Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences is also worth exploring. See: “Howard Gardner, - - Multiple Intelligences and Education,” infed.org, accessed October 15, 2014, http://infed.org/mobi/howard <u>gardner multiple-intelligences-and-education/.</u>

> 66 Howard Gardner, “The Happy Meeting of Multiple Intelligences and the Arts,” _Harvard Education Letter_ , November/December 1999, accessed November 14, 2014, http://hepg.org/hel- <u>home/issues/15_6/helarticle/the-happy-meeting-of-multiple-intelligences-and-th.</u>

> 67 The World Bank, _World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behavior_ . 68 Ibid. 69 Ibid.

> 70 Alec MacGillis, “Candidate: Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee Proposal: Focus on Arts and - Music Education,” _Washington Post_ , August 29, 2007, accessed April 8, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp <u>dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801711.html.</u>

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