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Published: 10 June, 2010
by JOHN GULLIVER

IF anyone can turn a disruptive, hyperactive schoolboy into a thoughtful, studious pupil you feel Dennis Creedon can pull off the miracle. And that is because he is possessed with an idea that could revolutionise teaching.

He believes he can transform the sort of schoolchild who is a nightmare to most teachers – by giving him lessons on music or painting. And you will never convince Dennis he is wrong.

What is his elixer of teaching based on?

It’s a conviction – Dennis describes it as a “scientific fact” – that the teaching of the arts releases endorphins which counter the effect of “stress-related cortisol” in children’s brains.

I met him accidentally at a seminar on arts teaching at a university in Philadelphia in the US where he confidently recited facts and figures about how young people’s lives in the city have been turned around in this way.

Dennis ought to know.  He is in charge of more than 500 arts teachers of the city’s 150,000 school roll – and has seen the number of teachers grow in the past couple of years along with the success of the programme.

The arts, according to Dennis, not only build our brains, they act as an insulation against stressful surroundings, successfully helping students to master information while soothing their emotions.

This is not just a proven textbook theory to Dennis. It also says something about his own life.

He knows what it is like to feel rejected as a child – even suicidal.

At the age of 10 he was virtually illiterate because of painful years of suffering from anoxeria.

“I wanted to die,” Dennis told me. He was so ill aged 10, that he had to go into hospital. And it was there, while taking arts therapy, that his life changed. 

“Suddenly, I began to believe in myself, my self-confidence was built up, life looked so much better. 

“Art had had such a therapeutic effect on me.”

But dyslexia thwarted his studies and around 20 he became a Franciscan monk.  Talking to him you can tell he is a deeply spiritual man with a strong moral compass. But after two years he left the order – aware that a life of celibacy wasn’t for him.

Later, by using a computer, he began to conquer his dyslexia and in his late-20s he studied  for a degree.

Then he joined Philadelphia’s school board – the rough equivalent of one of our council’s education departments – and rose to his high position today in the city.

The second time I met him he proudly showed me around the 54th annual art show held by the city’s schools – there were more than 2,000 exhibits – at the head office of the city’s education department   in the centre of Philadelphia.

His department is full of great ideas. He works with an agency that acts as a go-between by persuading corporations to use blown-up versions of exhibits to decorate their walls – using them as a kind of mural – and then funnelling the fee, usually several thousand dollars, back to the department.

“Here’s one” he told me as we stopped in front of a modern mosaic of colours hanging on the wall of an admin office.

“The boy who did this had a rough life – his mother was in jail, he didn’t know what was going to happen to him, he was living in a room as a child above a bar. Then his school recognised his talent in art and after they had chosen a painting for an exhibition, our agency spotted his work and sold it to a corporation.

“Now, he is training to be a carpenter; he has a future, he has hope.”

You could hear the emotion in his voice.

Dennis explained that a painting sold to a corporation remains there for eight years after which it has to be returned to the artist who can then sell it.

At the moment he is excited because he believes other cities in the US may become inspired by Philadelphia’s pioneering programme. Even other countries may start taking an interest in Dennis’s ideas.

If successful, it would certainly shrink the burgeoning cost of low level anti-social crime committed by disruptive young teenagers.

To push his idea, Dennis has written a heavily reasoned paper, which is shortly to be published by the prestigious world educationalist body, Phi Delta Kappan.

The fact that the paper has been accepted by Phi Delta Kappan clearly adds substantial weight to Dennis’s idea.

In the paper he writes: “All children and especially urban children need the arts if they are to thrive and blossom to their full potentials.

“We should not wait until our children are emotionally disturbed or incarcerated before we offer them the positive, cognitive, social, medical and emotional benefits of well-rounded arts education. To deny urban children arts education is societal child abuse.

“For those who feel that we cannot afford arts education... we should well consider the cost of a child who drops out of school or becomes incarcerated.”

To me, it sounded like a beautiful idea, a rainbow of hope. It is more than that to Dennis. He is convinced he has seen it work.

• Phi Delta Kappan: www.pdkintl.org