Presents responses to the policy recommendations issued by the National Endowment for the Arts in "Toward Civilization: A Report on Arts Education." Samuel Hope places this report in an historical context, Kevin Mulcahy points out the dangers of viewing art education as a pedagogical frill, and James Hutchens addresses issues of…

Presents ideas concerning the art-as-center and art-as-means dichotomy, European heritage, the art and humanities relationship, and the economic context. Synthesizes some of these ideas and makes recommendations about priorities for policy work. Suggests that both the graduate research establishment and the professional organization need to look…

Describes the origin and development of the National K-12 Standards for Arts Education. Discusses issues related to the fine arts being left out of the original national standards documents. Maintains that the standards are essential if the fine arts are to maintain parity with other curriculum subject areas. (CFR)

Asserts that it is important to avoid bandwagon superficialities related to the interdisciplinary approach to arts education in the K-12 curriculum. Concludes that the overarching issue related to the National Standards implementation is how to keep content and process in a productive relationship. (CFR)