Art and Self-Consciousness

For me, the question is not so much "How do we situate arts-based learning within a broader education?" as it is "How do we situate a broader education within arts-based learning?"  (I'm advocating a specific practice like arts integration less than I'm advocating the general idea that "education" could be a possible subheading under the title of "art.")  

If we consider "art" a term for a deeper form of education, then most other disciplines--science, math, history--become artforms of sorts when participants, through passionate engagement and measured discipline, acheive a certain level of intellectual thought and elegance of expression.  All true learning, then, ultimately becomes artistic (read: passionate, creative, and disciplined).  

And if learning helps form identity, then we "find" ourselves by losing ourselves in the process of creative exploration.  (Instead, however, we often we get in our own way: Teenagers stay silent for fear of "embarassing" themselves; adults become so certain of the qualities that define them as autonomous beings that creative exploration slows or stops altogether.)  

According to Madeleine L'Engle, the paradox lies in the ability to "take oneself lightly enough to take oneself seriously."  The arts facilitate this process better than almost anything else of which I'm aware:

"When we are self-conscious, we cannot be wholly aware; we must throw ourselves out first. This throwing ourselves away is the act of creativity. So, when we wholly concentrate, then we share in the act of creating. We not only escape time, we also escape our self-conscious selves." --Madeleine L'Engle (Circle of Quiet)