Evaluationg 21st Century Skills

I have an assignment to review a web site called Partnership for 21^st Century Skills.  This web site can be found at http://www.p21.org/.  Looking at this web site I see a well instructed and structured web site.  It flows very easily from one topic to another.  There is a lot of information on this site, and it does feel a bit over whelming.  I was very surprised to see that they have a section for Art Education.  There was an easy to read map for art educators in the classroom.  One that I feel I could easily refer to when I am in need of  new ideas in my classroom when trying to incorporate skills in the 21^st Century.

I did get a feeling when reading about the arts and how they were being used in this idea of 21^st Century Skills that core teachers were going to be intergrading the arts into their classes.  It sounds great but I disagree with this.  That Math classroom should not be a one stop room.  In other words, as an art teacher I try to incorporate some math with measuring and other skills.  By no means am I passing my class off as a math class.  That is what I am getting out of the information that the core teachers will be incorporating in their rooms the fine arts. It is one thing to integrate different subjects like art and math in elementary but for middle schools it is a different ballgame. We need to have highly skilled educators teaching the material to our students. 

We are experiencing this right now in our elementary schools because we do not have an art program for K-6 grades.  So the core teachers have to pick it up and the art lessons are really craft projects as opposed to fine art concentrated subject matter.  As an 8th grade art teacher I can really tell that they are coming to me with no art experience and the quality of there art is years behind the level is should be.  This can only work if there are art teachers in the school developing the techniques and building a base of information.  The core teachers can touch on elements of the arts and then the art teachers would be able to go much deeper with the lessons.