The most important job of arts educators isn’t to prepare students for careers in the arts (though I’m proud when former students do pursue arts careers).
The most important job of arts educators isn’t to ensure our students make art a vital part of their life journey (though I tell my students that they should find choirs to sing in along the way).
The most important job of arts educators isn’t to help improve standardized test scores (which aren’t good indicators of academic trajectory, and anyhow the data about arts and test scores are quite devoid of any real implications).
The most important job of arts educators is to humanize our students. So much of compulsory schooling feels designed to systematize and dehumanize young people. Enter arts classes. The music, theater, art, and other arts classes are quite possibly the only reliable hour of a student’s day designed specifically to humanize them. To undo the dehumanization they feel.
If we aren’t prioritizing the humanization of our students, we are missing the point. And this can be done regardless of circumstances. It’s much harder in a remote class, and it’s much harder when the art you make is disrupted by COVID-19 aerosols. But it’s nevertheless possible. It’s possible when we put, first and foremost, the precious humanity of our students.