Art In Education : The Importance Of Fine Arts In Schools

All around the United States, art programs are being cut out of the budget in public schools. The arts include dance, band, chorus, theatre, film, drawing, painting, photography and literary arts. Some school board members feel these art programs are not necessary and do not benefit the students in any way. Elementary, middle, and high school students are forced to quit their passion and feel that their talents are not supported by their schools. Although many are not aware, there is a strong connection between arts education and academic achievement. Unfortunately, due to budget cuts in many public schools, the art classes are first on the list to be cut. It is important that the students, parents and teachers

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.

Art programs around the United States are being shut down due to the lack of funding and misunderstanding of the subject. Many people think that the arts are just about drawing and painting. However, literature, performing arts, and media arts are on the list too. Students who are involved in an art curriculum are more likely to be successful in school than those who do not take them.

By having art programs in schools students gain skills such as, problem solving, critical and creative thinking, integration of multiple skill sets, and working with others. Qualities such as these are very necessary for creating exemplary students. Arts have already proven to help with many long standing problems but critical thinking is needed for jobs in the outside world. “ … Creating art supports problem-solving, creative thought and critique like no other discipline.” ( Schoales,2) By participating in artistic classes students gain discipline that most classes fail to teach. These valuable lessons learned from art can’t be found anywhere

By educating students any form of art, can open up new connections to imaginative thinking. The arts could even lead students to find new ways of studying that could benefit their other classes. Arts helps in finding different ways into processing ideas, not just analyzing an idea, but also taking into consideration of the more human side to things: emotion. With a student being more emotionally prepared to take on any task, it helps a student judge what is best for themselves in their routine of study. In “Necessary Edges” Yo-Yo Ma says how “we are also aware that wise and balanced judgment results from integrating the critical and empathetic, taking emotions as well as reason into account” (258). If the education system incorporates arts into the system then students could find means as to help relax from higher levels of thinking, as a means to release stress and to positively believe that they are striving to be their best. Wood supports the idea of incorporating art into education because with the incorporation of more technology placed into classes then it becomes “exhausting: a continuous period of forced engagement, with no relief in the form of time when my attention could flag or I could doodle in a notebook undetected

The fine arts program in public schools is detrimental to the success of students. Studies have shown that 90 percent or more of secondary schools offer instruction in music or the visual arts. With this many schools offering music in their curriculum there are numerous students that take these classes yearly. Taking away this classes would rob youth of their chance to excel in something other than academics. The fine arts program has multiple benefits to students. Youth who take music, art, and/or drama excel in the educational aspect of their lives. Music has been proved to be able to allow students to access parts of their brain that are not used in different daily activities. Fine arts also teaches children many values that can be used

Do you imagine a school without fine arts? Well, many schools want to cancel fine arts so that they could have more time in doing other activities like math, Social Studies, LAL, and other important subjects.Fine arts is a very important and special subject to have in school life.Many people have jobs based off what they learned in school from fine arts.Fine arts is a simple way on how kids may get their mind off of other classes. Schools have always been strict from other subjects so to let them free a little they would be able to enjoy the class without the other situations.

When used well, the arts are the cement that brings all the disparate curricular areas together. In the best schools, this is often the case. The arts are valued for their interdisciplinary potential. The result is a more cohesive curriculum in which students explore relationships across disciplines. . . . the arts in conjunction with other aspects of the curriculum afford students more complete and compelling conceptions. (p. 7)

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, art is defined as “something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings” (“Art”). With that being said, it is almost essential that art is maintained as a general course required for every student to take. While having art classes in schools available for students is important, it is also equally as important for the school funding for the art programs to be regulated throughout each district. By using a simple student to teacher ratio to determine how much money should be allotted to each teacher, this reoccurring problem could be solved for good.

school curriculums help to make learning relevant and meaningful. Visual art naturally captures a person’s attention, it

Many schools regard art with the idea that it’s just a bunch of colors mixed together; although I have found that art is not this simple a concept. I have problems with memorizing complicated and or important pieces of information; although when I learn through creating something, (for example, creating a picture having to do with moles, in order to learn about the chemistry unit moles) I’m able to clearly picture and understand newly introduced concepts. This is why I believe it should be mandatory to require all students to create art in introduction to a new concept. Doing this would not only open up people’s minds to art’s influences, but it would also have a positive effect on the student’s mental process as well.

Art education has been proven to help with “cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skills” as well as “motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork” (Smith). Having the ability and patience to sit down and paint a masterpiece or work through a song on the piano requires high focus and dedication. Students willing to do this will in turn have stronger skills to focus and be dedicated in other subjects. The mixture of all these abilities gained from participation in art programs lead to higher test scores and overall better performance in school. Still, these are only a few of the assets provided by art education.

Some schools in the United States offer a variety of arts programs, while other schools may have mediocre to non-existent arts programs. Students in their early years of schooling from elementary to high school depending on whether he or she has an arts education can affect them in the long run. Art programs since the 1980s have integrated into public education, however the No Child Left Behind act has since put the arts in the decline.

One beneficial factor of the arts education is the development of creativity. Children express themselves through art on a fundamental level. When kids are

Art education is often underestimated by many who believe that school was created to teach only analytical concepts such as mathematics and literature. However, research has shown that art courses are important, even necessary for students in elementary, middle, and high schools. These art classes may include not only visual arts but performing arts such as dance, theatre and choir. Barbara Streisand said, “Art does not exist only to entertain, but also to challenge one to think, to provoke, even to disturb, in a constant search for the truth,” (Quotations). Streisand points out that there are multiple benefits to art whether it be painted by a brush or sung from the heart. Art has the ability to allow people to see situations from