At this moment
there is a great urgency around a major transformation in America’s schools.
Persistently high dropout rates are indicating that teachers are enable to
motivate and interest their students. Children are loosing their ability to
think creatively and on abstract level due to the lack of arts education in
schools today. If children were provided with arts education they would have
higher test scores, would be more likely to go to college, and less likely to
participate in criminal activity. Students who graduate from high school are
products of a very test-centered and narrowed curriculum based upon answering a
multiple choice question accurately. Recent high school graduates are unable to
compete in the post-secondary education realm due to their inability to think
creatively and critically compared to their classmates from around the world. At
the non-profit I volunteer at, the walls are lined with quotes by famous
artists that students can identify with such as Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, these
are people who have been subjected to arts education and they are now making
millions of dollars of off art.
Arts
education can refer to either being educated in the arts or using art as a way
to teach general education. Drama, music, visual art, and dance are the most
general types of art that are integrated into schools. In the President’s
committee on the Arts he states the importance of integrating arts into general
subjects “Reading, math, and writing
require students to understand and use symbols and so does assembling shapes
and colors in a portrait or using musical notes to learn fractions. Experiences
in the arts are valuable on their own, but they also enliven learning of other
subjects, making them indispensable for a complete education in the 21st Century,”
(United States 20). The study of these mediums and practices helps students to
explore and learn other subjects for instance reading, writing, and math
requires the understanding of symbols, and so does assembling shapes and colors
in a piece of art or learning musical notes in order to understand fractions
more. Many schools are not supplying an adequate amount of art education for
students that would help them engage and succeed in other academic areas and
build skills that would help them compete on a global level.
The way in which people’s intelligence is
measured is through testing. In many public and private schools across the
country test scores are one of the most important things because they show who
the brightest students are, what teachers are most effective, and what students
will be promoted to the next grade. Brain research has been performed on the
topic of arts and testing. Researchers have begun to tackle the questions of
arts education benefits. This research will be instrumental in the fight for
more arts education funding.
“Through the leadership of the Dana Foundation, which supports brain
research, cognitive neuroscientists in seven universities have undertaken
formal studies of the connections between arts training and academic performance
using advanced techniques including brain imaging (Asbury & Rich, 2008).
Increasingly, researchers are finding evidence that early arts education is a
building block of developing brain function. Examples of findings, some of
which corroborate earlier findings, include:
• Music training is closely correlated with
development of phonological awareness ––one of the most important predictors of
early reading skills
• Children who were motivated to practice a
specific art form developed improved attention and also improved general
intelligence. Training of attention and focus leads to improvement in other
cognitive domains.
•
Links
have been found between high levels of music training and the ability to
manipulate information in both working memory and long-term memory, (United
States 22).”
Other researchers have been experimenting
with repetition and how helpful that is to the brain, especially musically. “Neuro-Ed
Initiative researchers at Johns Hopkins hypothesize that arts integration,
which emphasizes repetition of information in multiple ways, provides the
advantage of embedding knowledge in long-term memory, (United States 23).” If
students are exposed to a thought or idea multiple times then they are more apt
to remember it. If a child is presented with a question relating to fractions
and they can recall using fractions in visual art, music, and math class than
they are more likely to know how to answer it because they have been exposed to
it.
If
students are more exposed to arts in education and in general than they are
more apt to attend college because their ability to learn abstractly gives them
the drive and need to test themselves on new levels. College provides another
level of abstract thought for people to push themselves to a new level of
understanding, especially those who are trained in abstract thought and thrive
on it. In a recent study of low and high exposure to arts engagement in high
school students it shows that percentages of high school graduates who attend
college are more likely to have participated in arts education, “The table represents college attainment
rates, by attendance, by types of degrees earned, and even by college grades.
According to the data, 71 percent of low-SES students with arts-rich
experiences attended some sort of college after high school. Only 48 percent of
the low-arts, low-SES group attended any sort of college. And more than twice as many high-arts students from the low-SES group,
compared with low-arts students in that group, attended a four-year college (39
percent versus 17 percent), (Catterall 10). Arts education teaches students how to handle
a college workload and manage time due to the understanding of patience and
creative thought.
There
is a class taught at my high school that is strictly visual art, mainly types
of painting. Some of the students had been taking it for years in an effort to
perfect their art. One boy had been taking a class for four years in order to
finish one painting. He had begun his painting as a very rowdy boy unable to
remain still. He ended the program a very patient boy who was very attentive,
and also with a finished product. The art class taught the boy patience and
focus by presenting him with a project that is tedious and putting faith in his
ability to complete it.
Arts
education gives children a hobby. For instance when going into a dance or music
class the child may thoroughly enjoy the art and may want to continue in their
spare time. This gives them something to do other than get into trouble. If
more arts education programs were in schools then our incarceration rates would
diminish especially among delinquents and young adults.
Schools around the
country are working to integrate arts based curriculum into schools in an
effort to broaden the skill set of the workforce. Many cities and counties
across the nation have at least one public school of the arts for students, “Programs in California, Connecticut,
Mississippi, New York, Ohio, and South Carolina have shown positive outcomes
such as higher test scores, increased academic achievement, lower absenteeism,
and soft skills development beginning at an early age,” (Psilos 5). These
programs go into schools and help to establish a better arts program but more
specifically change “the school’s culture-its symbols, myths, and educational
expectations, both for students and teachers,” (Psilos 5). In all of the
schools cited they all reported success through the programs and can condone a
visible improvement among students. In Washington there is an Experimental
Gallery, Washington’s Experimental Gallery, teaches responsible citizenship
through the arts. In partnership with the Washington State Department of Social
and Health Services and the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration the gallery
created an Arts program for Incarcerated Youth from six different Juvenile Detention
Facilities. Local artists volunteer their time and talents to teach the
incarcerated youth various artistry practices such as sculpture or photography.
Due to the success of the Arts Program for Incarcerated Youth, the Washington
State Historical Society’s Capital Museum is working towards developing a
museum school in one of the maximum-security facilities as well as, “students
in the Experimental Gallery overcome their behavioral problems by 75 percent
and are 50 percent less likely to commit another crime,” (NEH). An art in
education gives students hobbies and the skills needed to make better choices.
It shows them alternate ways to entertain themselves and gives them goals. When
students are provided with other ways to entertain themselves then they will
diverge from the path of criminal acts.
Arts in education are an
instrumental piece of the learning process. By having arts and education in
schools students are more well rounded, it’s a good stress reliever,
independent thinking, problem solving, communication skills, creative
expression, relate better to the outside world, and gives them a hobby that
makes them feel filled with self-worth. If children were provided with arts in
education then test scores would be higher, incarceration rates among youth
would be lower, and would be more likely to go to college. While money is tight
in the country right now we need to start thinking about investing in arts in
education because the benefits out way the costs when we compare ourselves to
other countries who have students who are much more intelligent than the
students here. In order for us to remain competitive we have to start with the
next generation of decision makers and make sure that they have the capacity
and ability to make decisions to ensure our stature in the world.
President's Committee on the
Arts and the, Humanities. "Re-Investing In Arts Education: Winning
America's Future Through Creative Schools. Summary And Recommendations."
President's Committee On The Arts And The Humanities (2011): ERIC. Web. 2 Nov.
2012.
Catterall, James. "National
Endowment for the Arts." National Endowment for the Arts. (2012):
28. Web. 1 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED530822>.
Psilos, Phil. "The Impact
of Arts Education on Workforce Preparation." Issue Brief. NGA
Center for Best Practices, 01 2002. Web. 18 Nov 2012.
<http://www.nga.org/files/live/sites/NGA/files/pdf/050102ARTSED.pdf>.
"Coming up Taller." The
National Endowment for the Humanities. N.p., 01 2002. Web. Web. 18 Nov.
2012. <www.cominguptaller.org/profile/pr202multi.htm.>.
