A Case For Early Art Education

According to Sandra Ruppert, the majority of the American public believes that “the arts are vital to a well-rounded education,” with over half of them rating the importance a strong ten on a scale (“New Harris Poll”). According to this Harris Poll among 1,000 American adults from May 2005, a stunning “eighty-six percent of Americans agree that an arts education encourages and assists in the improvement of a child’s attitudes toward school.” Eighty-three percent feel confident that an education involving art helps students communicate better with everyone around them. Seventy-nine percent believe that “incorporating arts into education is the first step in adding back what’s missing in public education today,” and many feel that it is so important that they would become personally involved to help increase the quality and amount of arts education children receive.

• Visual art classes help develop motor skills in young children in elementary schools. Topic 3: Fine arts can be beneficial on student’s performance. • Art education improves student’s performance in core academic subjects. • Students with four years of art courses scored 91 points higher on SAT exams than those who took half a year or less.

Students that are involved in fine arts may do better on their test scores. Most children that participate in fine arts have a better act And can cooroperate better with others. Many studies show that all this is true.(“10 Studies on the Importance of Art in Education.”)

Fine arts in schools have been debated for years. While many programs still exist, children are told that their fine arts education will not help them in school, or in life. This is false under all circumstances, as with the right teacher and motivation, a student can grow a passion for the arts. Though studies are still being conducted, there is great evidence that the fine arts are beneficial in the overall education of a student, as well as the world as a whole. Art programs should be kept in schools because of their amazing impact on the academic and personal lives of those who connect to it.

Having arts in school helps students with learning and decrease the dropout rate. The article states, “Washington said the arts classes taught her about collaborate with others. They also helped her learn to be responsible and to think outside the box.” Arts in school can help students figure out patterns and think by using multiple perspectives. The article provides these quotes, “‘It's not that the arts are something to put on in the final period of the day once all the 'real work' is done,’ Washington said. ‘Arts are actually how we can help them get the 'real work' done.’” Art in school also provides a way to improve the understanding of core subjects in school. Another quote says, “Gubitz said the arts are an ‘accelerator’ for improvements

Art: Another Language for Learning presents true stories about childhood development, with accompanying discussions about the role of art processes as well as products. It helps teachers and parents understand what they see when they look at children's art - and how to respond so that they may extend communication and advance learning. Authors Cohen and Gainer provide an ideal resource for anyone without previous art training now working with children. Moreover, they encourage teachers, students, and parents to discard preconceptions of art education as an accouterment to curriculum and embrace the myriad ways art can unlock doors, encourage expression, and enhance learning.

Or can certain teaching styles have positive effects and create positive mind sets that help individuals have an open minded approach to problems as well as being expressive and creative. In this paper I will be exploring the different ways art can benefit an individual both mentality and physically wether it be through art therapy or being taught.

The education sector contains the requirement to maintain uniformity and be delivered according to the set standards mainly through the set curriculum. The United States education system provides for standards that encourage the career readiness as student leave high school and join college. For all kinds of education offered, there needs to be a connection between the subjects taken and the career option of the student. The nature of art education offered in most high schools is mainly aimed at ensuring that the students are properly equipped with the beginner knowledge so that as they join colleges to establish a career in the arts field, they have all the basic and relevant experience. The kind of education offered needs to be up to the standards of the students’ age bracket. Kim & Wiehe-Beck suggested a reform in the model of art education to fit the age appropriate standards.

Art education should be required in public school because art learning skills starts out when a child is young and it progress as they get older. It benefits motor skills, language development, decision making, and visual learning. In June of 2012 Grace Hwang Lynch wrote an article in the education section in web site PBS.org “The importance of art in Child Development” she stresses about the many benefit of arts for child development. She explained the concept of motor skills by the National Institutes of Health, There can be many different motion from drawing to using a scissor to cutting a straight line. She implicates that children developments emphasize on prepare a child for the dexterity for writing (Lynch). I agreed with Lynch, because

This article is based on a study that was funded in 2001 by the National Art Education Foundation and it focused on the use of arts education in juvenile detention centers in the United States (107). The purpose of this study was to figure out if art education helped children and teens in juvenile detention centers to have a better vision of the future (107). The National Art Education Foundation created a survey to support their research and it was composed of 17 multiple choice and short answer questions (108). The questions in the survey asked people of each institution about funding, instruction, demographics, and participation in the art programs. This survey was given to each of the 478 public residential juvenile correctional facilities

Think about the arts: they are omnipresent like air in daily life, from going to the movies to attending a music concert to visiting an art museum, with none of those activities being existent if it were not for the people who spent years perfecting those art forms for other’s entertainment and enjoyment. The truth is, the arts have been embedded in human nature just like carvings on wood, and is a surviving and persisting tradition that can be traced to even the earliest culture and history that has proved itself to be a key factor for bringing the world together under common interests and art forms. One would think that the arts should be required in all education systems with their strong roots in the past and modern times, but the arts are still the first programs to be cut from schools on tight budgets, and are nonexistent in low-income schools due to being dismissed as inferior to the more “academic” subjects. Even though the arts are more abstract, subjective, and lenient in subject areas, they are still the crucial link and passage to the world of creativity, imagination, and passion. The arts are irreplaceable subjects that should be maintained in schools because only they can provide a truly well rounded education to students, harnessing them with priceless skills that simply cannot be found in purely academic classes, while providing numerous benefits that no other programs can replace.

The impact art has on the citizens of the Untied States is incredible. Through the NEA, incredible strides have been made in arts education. The Endowment funds research for those who create studies relating to the arts. One such researcher is Kenneth Elpus, whose research report entitled “Arts Education and Positive Youth Development: Cognitive, Behavioral, and Social Outcomes of Adolescents Who Study the Arts.” The study examines the positive effects on social, cognitive, and behavioral skills that an arts education can have on children as they grow into adolescence. Findings from the report show students who took art classes of some form were 55.38% more likely to have attended college by the time they reached adulthood. The report concluded

The intended audience for this presentation are an educational advisory boards with regards to advocating for art education in school curriculum in America. This topic is appropriate for parents that are interested in how fine art education helps to improve at risk student

It is well known that art is often overlooked or cut in most education systems around the world. Many believe that is is a distraction from the core components of education (Math, Science, English and History). While many believe this, studies have shown the complete opposite. Art enhances education and encourages creativity or ‘thinking outside the box’. By definition art is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination. Without art, earth would be ‘eh’. Funds are running low and the federal government does not require any completion of art in order to receive a diploma. However, art should be a required fifth core class.

The continued success of art education should be focused on studying art through individual experiences, and development. Also art history and the study of visual culture are meaningless in the lives of learners unless they are better integrated into the art education curriculum (Mcfee 1960:18). Although arts education has made great historical strides Efland (1990:263) still questions the system of art education curricula particularly the educator’s way of facilitating skills