the Muses Go to School: Inspiring Stories About Importance of Arts Education

Hailed as an “impressive collection of remembrances and commentaries” ( ), brings together beloved and renowned artists—including Whoopi Goldberg, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Rosie Perez, and Phylicia Rashad—to share their transformative school encounters with the arts that helped them discover their inner humanity and put them on the road to fully realized creative lives. These autobiographical pieces are paired with interpretive essays by distinguished educators to produce a powerful case for positioning the arts at the center of primary and secondary school curriculums. Spanning a range of genres from acting and music to literary and visual arts, these smart and entertaining voices make surprising connections between the arts and the development of intellect, imagination, spirit, emotional intelligence, self–;esteem, and self–;discipline of young people. Herbert Kohl and Tom Oppenheim have created “a superbly articulate assemblage of intensely personal, interdisciplinary voices” ( ), revealing that creative arts are a critical element of any education.