Something to chew on....

Here are some interesting thoughts from another Harvard peer on our discussion board. Perhaps the reason that businesses are finding folks with inventive, empathic, and big-picture capabilities in Art and Design schools is because (apparently until now) those schools had not yet become vocational education.

It should be self-evident that cognitive skills developed and strengthened while studying and doing art or design would be both handy and useful in myriad ways. Most likely, some of those art students will get hired and thrive in a business setting (though they may not find it as personally fulfilling at expressing themselves through art.)  But I personally am much more comfortable leaving the end consumer of education as the students themselves and NOT utility to their eventual employer.

By the way, everything I just said is equally true for the field in which I teach - mathematics. We're just more misunderstood.

I have been completely silent on this board for years..... however i've been lurking and listening.  I finally have something to offer the conversation while also in need of some advice. I've written a lengthy article about the Studio for Interrelated Media department where I teach at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Since beginning to write, I have had the Thought and Action Journal in mind. However, it is now way too long for their guidelines and I'm now looking for other journals. 

I have uploaded the current version of the article here if anyone would be interested in taking a look:
https://docs.google.com/View?id=dhmzx58m_1gx25wgf9 

Here's the first paragraph to wet your whistle:

"As we begin our present decade, the US is faced with a myriad of daunting problems to overcome, including an impaired financial sector; environmental challenges; an embattled health care industry and a rapidly increasing global competition to be the world leader in productivity and innovation. Daniel H. Pink has coined this new era as the Conceptual Age[1] where those with inventive, empathic and big-picture capabilities will thrive. To help solve these problems, corporations, government agencies and business organizations are looking for employees that have the skills to adapt to this changing world and offer solutions born from fresh perspectives. Many businesses are not finding these ideal 21st century employees in the usual places such as top MBA programs.  Instead, these essential agents of change are emerging from an unlikely source: schools of art and design[2].  Many companies are discovering that these graduates bring a different, yet crucial set of skills to the organization: creative problem finding and solving, information synthesis, and the ability to collaborate across disciplines. The STEM to STEAM movement has catalyzed this shift in expectations. As education governance calls for more and better science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to stay competitive, there is an increasing call to add art to that list (STEAM) as another fundamental subject to teach in preparation for the future[3].  In Boston, The Studio for Interrelated Media (SIM) at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, better known as MassArt, has developed a model program that has been answering this call in unconventional ways for over 40 years."

I'm a bit stuck as to where to go next and would love anyone's thoughts on what journal serves those interested in alternative educational models and art education. 

Thank you so much, and Happy Spring!