State plays same old song with school cuts

That Michigan tune -- slash, cut, pare to the bone -- is playing again.

Art and music teachers cower in the corner when school budgets are cut. They know from long, difficult experience their specialties will be among the first to go.

Disciplines like orchestral music are treated like last season's merchandise at an outlet store, ready for the container ship. Let's hack off the State Fair, the agricultural extension service, the state library (we can digitize it and put it on a CD!). As long as taxes are low, we can get by without the luxuries that used to be thought of as "civilization."

I've been hearing from parents and educators across Metro Detroit who expect the state's school cutbacks to translate, at the district level, into fewer art and orchestral programs.

School districts push back the frequency of foreign language introduction and postpone music education. Never mind the scientific studies that show young people master foreign languages easily, or that playing instruments fully engages brain cells in a way that almost no other intellectual activity can.

Teaching the arts is expensive. Parents readily acquiesce to the idea that it's an extra, a frippery not required, in a way they'd never tolerate the loss of, say, varsity football.

Move is alarming

Education Professor Yong Zhao, who was born and educated in China but has taught at Michigan State University for 13 years, is alarmed by Michigan's move toward standardization. He yanked his own son out of a Lansing-area public school because his son's creative approaches to writing were discouraged: The MEAP demanded specific elements.

The rules, Yong Zhao points out, can be confining and stultifying. "We need artists. We need musicians," says Zhao, who grew up in a Sichuan village where the best-testing kids were culled for higher education, while those who couldn't master the tests had few options. He's written a book, "Catching Up or Leading the Way: America in the Age of Globalization," that challenges current interest in teaching "the basics."

Not a math whiz himself, Zhao studied English, becoming a teacher. At 27, he moved to the United States, seeking a "broader and different education than I could get in China."

That he did, but now he's dismayed to see America -- and Michigan -- trying to echo the stripped-down Chinese system. In China, he points out, educators are now moving toward a freer approach, because they recognize deficits in creativity.

"People think, "You can develop these talents later. But you can't always tap into it later," Zhao says. "I know this because I had no exposure in school and my children laugh at my efforts now."

Cautions expressed

Narrowing education to literacy, math and higher-level science ultimately won't make us stronger. In a global economy, he argues, fewer Americans will be prepared to pursue their unique passions and strengths.

Zhao came to the United States seeking freedoms he has enjoyed. But the state's educational initiatives are daunting. "Most of what I've seen in Michigan depresses me," he says.

The world needs all kinds of talents, and the best schools will open doors to all kinds of kids. Zhao's cross-cultural perspective offers a timely warning about the danger of hacking away at the good stuff.