How the arts can unlock a closed curriculum

The pandemic has upended the whole system, making it impossible for education policy makers and officials to know, with the usual degree of certainty, how things are progressing for students, teachers, and administrators, or even what ends they're pursuing. In many online classrooms, it's uncertain whether students are paying attention at all, much less whether they're engaged and learning. And in many schools and districts, students' physical and mental health needs have taken priority over short-term academic goals. Here, Sikkema et al share how they created an arts-based curricula to meet the challenges of the pandemic.