Why
is Arts-in-Education So Important?
Arts
education fosters personal growth and development.
The arts help all students succeed in school and life by providing students
with the opportunity to develop habits of mind such as critical and creative
thinking, perseverance and dedication to task.
The arts can engage youth who are not being reached through traditional schooling and can positively affect the personal qualities critical to becoming psychologically healthy.
On the highest levels of literacy, in the realms of social and personal growth and development, and in the development of higher-order thinking skills, the arts provide an ideal setting for multi-faceted and profound learning experiences. (From Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning; Arts Education Partnership and The President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, 1999)
The
Arts Improve the School Climate
Schools organized around the arts look, sound and feel different…[They
are more] attractive, warm, welcoming, and visually exciting.
The
Arts' Comprehensive Tasks Challenge Students
Art students, with the help of their teachers, undertake big projects.
They produce a play, present a concert or dance recital, …mount
exhibitions. In doing so, students master an enormous number of artistic
skills, direct a myriad of aesthetic and expressive qualities toward given
ends, and symbolize human behaviors and emotions in a great variety of
ways.
The
Arts Turn Schools into Communities
[Students, teachers, administrators] of arts-centered schools
see themselves as members of communities—communities that they have
a role in creating and sustaining. [Arts-centered schools] are
able to capitalize on the fact that the arts encourage students and faculty
members to work together, to create things together, to perform together.
Teachers are continually modeling their skills, revealing their interpretation,
insights, and judgments to the younger members of these arts communities. (From Gaining
the Arts Advantage: Lessons Learned from School Districts that Value Arts
Education, Brent Wilson, Ph.D.)
Arts
Education is Relevant to Careers
“As we all know, New York is the world leader in arts-related industries
such as publishing, fashion, commercial theater and new media. Equally
important is the observation made by Hugh O'Neill and Mitchell Moss in
their 1991 study, Reinventing New York, that New York City is home to
the headquarters of large numbers of Fortune 500 companies, as well as
corporate research and development facilities, customized manufacturing,
innovative global financial services, foreign firms and banks- in other
words, industries that require high level, creative thinking. To retain
these industries, it is vitally important that our schools produce the
highly skilled and innovative workforce on which these businesses depend,
and that we offer our children the education they need to successfully
compete for the jobs these industries have to offer. There is no more
effective way of doing so than providing all of our children with a solid
education in the arts, and by exposing them to the incredible array of
cultural resources to be found in New York City today.” (Excerpts
from testimony of Kate D. Levin, Commissioner, April 2003 to the NYC Council,
Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup
Relations - Arts Education; April, 2003)
TOP
Robert
Basey (above), aka Babaloo, is a COAHSI grantee and a delightful storyteller
for children of all ages.