In first grade, my teacher was committed to following directions. We got to stand in the corner when we disobeyed. The teacher was always right. Even when she circled our art work with a red pen and told us it was “wrong.”

I remember working on a row of stick figures. I added costumes to each with boots, hats, boas, crowns and necklaces. I already knew how to write and was well on my way to competence with the figure. My peers were making circles, practicing using paper with dotted lines in the middle. I remember my amazement when my paper came back. Red marks everywhere! My people were more like people than any stick person would ever be! What a test.

I read with interest the Tri-City Herald editorial “Setting standards for art seems more like science” republished in the Dec. 7 Spokesman-Review. Although I have seen my share of inferior testing, I believe there are appropriate ways to test the skills of arts students. Furthermore, I believe the arts deserve to be “tested” as with all “core” subjects.

As I understand, the arts will be evaluated through Classroom Based Performance Assessments, which are designed to be administered as a component of specific arts classes. This will assure that school districts provide quality arts instruction in art, music, theater and dance. Whether someone grows up to be a visual artist, a musician or an actor, arts education is important. All can benefit from an understanding of the arts. All benefit from visual and cultural literacy.

As Dave Weatherred from Spokane Public Schools stated, “The arts are an essential part of the total education package for all students. The assessments are one of the keys to unlocking the creative doorway for children and assuring that they all have the skills necessary.”

Ernest Hemingway needed to know spelling and grammar. I am certain John Steinbeck learned his verb tenses and how to relate his feelings and visual impressions before he wrote “The Grapes of Wrath.” Artists benefit from understanding color. Musicians benefit from knowing how to read music.

Learning the arts is like anything – it is a series of incremental steps to learn skills and knowledge leading to understanding and ability. All benefit from great art or from the sheer joy of making something! Sure, there are “naïve” artists who are brilliant and there are those who have benefited from music classes who can’t hear a thing. That isn’t the point.

The concern is that if the arts are dismissed as not part of the core curriculum, our kids aren’t going to get a complete education. If people don’t get a chance to learn these basic skills, they won’t be prepared to be whatever they choose to be.

Where the arts are being tested, things seem to be going well. There is a “test” for each arts discipline – dance, drama, music and the visual arts. As stated by Annette Woolsey, board member for ArtsEd Washington, “The smart and caring people who have developed the assessments have been careful to make them ‘talent neutral’ and have focused on the terms, concepts and general understandings of each arts discipline.”

This is a tricky issue. We don’t want to turn the arts into something as dull and lifeless as what WASL testing seems to be producing in other areas of education. The way the test works is important. What is important to me (and should be for all of us) is that kids have arts in their lives. If we only teach to the test, we must make a WASL for every arts discipline.

Or maybe we should rethink the whole testing situation. The purpose of the WASL wasn’t to create punitive behaviors and fear. Nor was it intended to yield a less creative student. It wasn’t about giving more kids what my brother called “arithmetic stomach.” It is supposed to make things better. It isn’t better if kids don’t have time to be educated in the arts or if the testing becomes the point of education rather than the measure of what is learned.