Why The Arts?

Building creativity, confidence, self-discipline and  intelligence through studying the arts helps  children learn to become better leaders. Creativity blossoms when students make the hundreds of conscious and unconscious decisions required in the arts; what colors to use, what size, what mood.  The practice of art requires self-discipline, self-critique and confidence. The arts help students become the people they want to be.

The study “Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development,” funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Arts, states:

“Children from high-SES (socio-economic status) families are much more likely than low-SES children to be consistently involved in arts activities or instruction.  Economically disadvantaged students often don’t have the same opportunities to become engaged in the arts.  But, as this study shows, low-SES children who do participate in the arts perform better academically and socially.”

Why The Arts Are Essential To Education

By: John Alston

Most American students and adult workers spend their time following orders.  Our modern educational system is, in many ways, antiquated, having developed in large part as a response to the industrial revolution.  A morning bell signaled the beginning of both work and school, and an afternoon bell signaled the end of the day.

The demands of a 21st century world are quite different from those
of a century ago, and yet our schools have remained largely the same.
America’s elementary and secondary students are among the lowest performing of first-world nations, and so unfortunately we must import an increasing amount of high-skilled labor from abroad.

Our public schools are simply not preparing children to compete.  Instead American school children spend most of their time memorizing, drilling, and following teacher instructions.  Teacher says: Students do.  While this process is a necessary portion of learning, our students need more in order to become competitive adults.

Creating art requires students to make hundreds of conscious and unconscious decisions and encourages imaginative, innovative, and critical thinking:

1. Improvising as well as memorizing – Most music education is based solely on learning the notes on the page, but when a child is introduced to a simple blues scale and the idea of improvisation, he becomes a problem solver, a composer.
2. Creating as well as repeating – Our little blues musician is a creator.  In the same way a five-year-old presented with crayons and blank paper will intuitively fill it with her ideas, not just copy someone else’s art.
3. Leading as well as following – Because the artistic impulse is personal, children often choose to make something other than what the teacher suggests.  When this independent and creative spirit is nurtured (rather than crushed, as it is in most classrooms), our next generation of leaders is born.
4. Cooperation as well as competition – Many arts are not possible without high levels of cooperation (playing in orchestra, singing in chorus, theatre, dance, arts).  With interactive artistic activities, students must give and take, and pay attention to others.
5. Beauty as well as correctness – Artists pursue beauty.  They want to make the canvas beautiful, the music beautiful, and the world beautiful.  Einstein understood that his E=MC2 was both correct and beautiful.  Einstein was a great scientist and also a pretty good violinist.  Our opportunity with these children is endless, yet our responsibility is now.

Now, imagine a classroom where first graders count the number of rooms in their homes, draw their homes, measure the rooms, count the number of family members and then draw them.  Or, imagine the same class joyfully singing the months of the year, rather than simply reciting them.