Elementary Standards

Standards

Art Education/ History Education

New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards
for Visual and Performing Arts

An education in the arts is an essential part of the academic curriculum for the achievement of human, social, and economic growth. The education of our students in the disciplines of dance, music, theater, and visual arts is critical to the success of New Jersey and the nation as we move into the twenty-first century. Our economic well-being and ability to compete and cooperate in the global marketplace require that our students learn to develop original ideas, increase their ability to solve problems, and interact in partnerships -- skills inherently learned through the arts.

An education in the arts has the potential to:

Strengthen our ability to be creative and inventive decision-makers
Develop a wide range of skills significant to many aspects of life and work
Provide varied and powerful ways of communicating ideas, thoughts and feelings, both as individuals and as members of communities
Enable us to understand and influence the increasingly complex technological environment affecting all aspects of our lives
Provide a strong economic base through the state's cultural attractions
Emphasize humanities education as a key to understanding the arts as products of complex social, cultural, and intellectual trends
Enrich understanding of the human experience across cultures and histories, including the accomplishments of men and women of different ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds
Provide valuable tools to enhance learning across all disciplines
Empower people to create, reshape and fully participate in personal and community environments, to enhance the quality of life for all.

All children require and must be provided with an opportunity for a meaningful arts education. These core curriculum standards provide the foundation for creating a framework for essential arts education in all New Jersey schools. They form the core of our expectations for New Jersey students.

History Education

New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Social Studies

Introduction

Citizen participation in government is essential in forming this nation's democracy, and is vital in sustaining it. Social studies education promotes loyalty and love of country and it prepares students to participate intelligently in public affairs. Its component disciplines foster in students the knowledge and skills needed to make sense of current political and social issues. By studying history, geography, American government and politics and other nations, students can learn to contribute to national, state and local decision-making. They will also develop an understanding of the American constitutional system, an active awareness and commitment to the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, a tolerance for those with whom they disagree, and an understanding of the world beyond the borders of the United States.

The Supreme Court of New Jersey underscored the role of the social studies in fulfilling the state's obligation to offer all children a "thorough and efficient education" with these words:

Thorough and efficient (education) means being able to fulfill one's role as a citizen, a role that encompasses far more than merely registering to vote. It means the ability to participate fully in society, in the life of one's community, the ability to appreciate music, art, and literature, and the ability to share all that with friends.

--Abbott v. Burke 119 NJ 287, pp. 363-364 (1990)

http://www.state.nj.us/njded/frameworks/index.html

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