Over the past two years a number of studies indicate that current educational approaches stifle both students and educators by focusing on a definition of "the basics" that ignores the competencies demanded by the complexities and opportunities of modern life, the skills required to sustain our role as the world leader in innovation, and the values that are the basis of our pluralistic and democratic society. Fortunately, there is now strong evidence that the American public has awakened to these challenges and is demanding that schools act to once again ignite and develop the imagination of young people as the essential capacity for envisioning and attaining these competencies, skills, and values.

There is an "imagine nation" at the heart of this public understanding that realizes that building capacities of the imagination rests primarily with an education in and through the arts and that the arts are essential to invigorating the teaching of other fundamental school subjects. Read the National Poll and other useful materials under the Resources section.