preview

The Importance Of Arts Education

Decent Essays

Many young girls dream about being ballerinas when they grow up. Most adults think it is sweet, and some parents even sign their children up for dance classes. However, as they age, that dream of being a professional dancer appears to be inadequate. Why is that? In our culture, there is a lack of importance on the arts, and thus, a lack of funding. Many see the arts as frivolous and a cost that is not imperative to the success of a nation. On the other hand, one could ask how a country can be successful without a cultural identity that is largely created by the arts and humanities in the society. President Lyndon B. Johnson declared that, “Any ‘advanced civilization’ must fully value the arts, the humanities, and cultural activity” (Deb). Being a professional artist of any kind seems like an unstable career because there is a lack of consistent and substantial funding for them. The only way to change the funding crisis is to fight the cultural tendency to dismiss the importance of the arts. This will happen through educating those who have yet to lose that sense of innocence, wonder, and imagination, and integrating the arts into their academic and social lives. In recent years there have been many events that have lead to the decline of arts funding. First, was the budget cuts due to the recession of 2008. “The problem within the public school districts is the decline of their arts education programs. In many cases, arts programs were among the first to go” (Ramos 1).

Get Access