Check out this great feature from today’s Education Week Online, about Philadelphia Assistant Superintendent Dennis W. Creedon. Even with a daunting budget shortfall in 2013, Mr. Creedon was instrumental in helping to preserve and restore many of the arts education positions that were eliminated as part of those funding cuts. In addition, he is credited with developing critical public-private partnerships between schools and the performing arts community to provide further enrichment and exposure to the arts for students.
Mr. Creedon’s passion for music in education stems largely from his personal experience; in the article he credits art therapy with helping him cope with dyslexia and find his niche academically. As he states in the article, “People see it as a frill, but it’s not a frill. It’s actually the center of the core… If you cut these out of schools, you are really cutting the heart out of our children and their future.”