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Home > Interviews > Interview with Cyrus Driver
Voices of Innovation
An Interview with Cyrus E. Driver, Deputy Director, Education, Sexuality, Religion unit at Ford Foundation
Tell us about your current position and affiliation.
I am the Deputy Director of the Ford Foundation's Education, Sexuality, Religion unit. I work on the Foundation's grant making strategies focused on high quality education for public school students, with an emphasis on big city school systems. Our grantmaking programs work in a number of ways to achieve this.
How did you personally first get involved in the arts?
Much of my world view has been shaped by my years of community organizing in Chicago and my training as an economist. Personally, besides being a lover of music and a fan of visual arts, my childhood experiences with arts and arts education were, how can I say it, dreadful. In fact, the only class I really I thought I was going to fail as I was growing up was my 8th grade arts class. But, when I came to Ford, I began to look at ways that our public schools could foster a well-rounded education for all children, but particularly children of color. I knew that many public schools were struggling to engage students, and to make education both rigorous and relevant. But I also knew that what really got students excited was the opportunity to use their imaginations and creativity and to exercise their voice. The places where this was happening most effectively were in schools where arts were being integrated into the instructional practices of classroom teachers, where interdisciplinary, integrated curricula were creating learning spaces where I wanted to put my own children.
What do the arts mean to the Ford Foundation?
Our initiative on Integrating the Arts and Education Reform is supported by both my colleagues working onmedia, arts and culture, as well as our education team. We believe that every child deserves a quality public education that includes the arts – exposure to music, theatre, dance, the visual arts and more.
That so many children in large urban public school districts lack learning in the arts and through the arts is certainly a matter of educational quality – but also a matter of educational equity and justice. Students who have the capacity to work as part of a team, to use their imaginations, to think creatively, who are comfortable with the creative potential of new technologies, who have the skills that arts-infused learning builds, will be best placed to participate fully in American life and take advantage of 21st century jobs. And these students will have the capacity to represent what's important to them, to express themselves as participants in our democracy. The arts, as my arts colleagues have argued, animate democratic practice.
Finally, arts-integrated schools create new communities bringing artists into schools, creating more vibrant relationships between teachers and parents and amongst faculty.
How involved do parents need to be in terms of getting their child either a musical instrument or painting lessons, or ballet or dance lessons? And how can parents who are financially strapped accomplish this?
The majority of Americans believe that the arts are central to well-rounded education, and believe that all schools should offer art learning to all students. Access to quality learning in the arts is an equity issue, not one for parents' pocketbooks. Undoubtedly, parents and guardians are the most important ally in this quest for a quality, broad-based education. Their leadership and support will ensure that children get the education they deserve. Enabling them to get involved on behalf of their children is the main reason why we fund www.keepartsinschools.org, an online community for advocates.
I should say again, though, that we believe that learning specific art forms, while part of a well-rounded education, is only a part of a quality arts-integrated school. Just as important, if not more, we feel that using the arts throughout the teaching day, as part of a regular classroom teacher's repertoire, is absolutely critical to developing student imagination, creativity, and a real love of learning.
What question have I neglected to ask?
Certainly learning through the arts contributes to positive school identity and can increase student sense of belonging. But just as important is the role that arts education plays in the larger community. Learning in the arts infuses communities with a unique richness. The arts, music, dance, photography and the like, help bridge the divides of language and culture and promote community understanding. They can expand our capacity for empathy by drawing people into the experiences of other people and cultures - vastly different from their own. There is a wonderful opportunity to create social bonds and social capital when communities share in both the creation and appreciation of works of art.
I guess you've gathered that this old economist, who once in middle school feared the arts, and who, like many in education saw the arts as marginal to a quality education, is now an acolyte of their transformative power in schools.
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