Being involved in the fine arts and studying the arts enables students to reach their highest level of learning. Fine Arts expand learning, encourage creative thinking, and help students develop a higher intelligence. They help students have a deeper understanding of the core subjects; language arts, math, science, and social studies (www./musicedmagic.com). Research and studies on the human brain have proved that being active in the arts creates a positive, nurturing, and stimulating environment that allows the brain to learn, remember, problem-solve, and create things (www.newhorizons.org). Studying and being involved in the visual arts and dance improves a student’s analytical thinking, which is their ability to understand a problem and solve it using logic and reasoning. Studies have proved that students actively involved in music have higher science and math scores (www.newhorizons.org). Many people say that the arts and core subjects go hand-in-hand.
The arts provide students with skills that will help them later on in life. When students are working on a theatrical piece, they have to commit to what they are doing, cooperate with others, and compromise to accomplish their goals, much like athletes on a sports team. These skills are necessary for any and every work environment. Music and the visual arts (painting, sculpting, and drawing) require patience, persistence, perseverance, and teach that discipline comes before freedom of expression (www.newhorizons.org). Through dancing, acting, music, and drawing students must discipline themselves. These skills will not only help them succeed in school, but also in college and in the workplace. The lessons they learn in their art classes are invaluable and will take them farther in life than the lessons taught in the core classes.
The arts help improve self-esteem, self-confidence, and teach students about humanity. The self-discipline, self-motivation, and cooperation used in music, dance, and drama are necessary to develop self-esteem (www.garlandisd.net). The feeling of accomplishment after a finished piece of art builds up a student’s confidence and teaches them to value themselves. Self-esteem and self-confidence are vital when the student goes to a job interview, or when they have to speak in front of a large group of people. No one will hire, trust them, pay attention to them, or want to listen to them if they do not have a lot of confidence and have low self-esteem. Through acting and portraying different characters, students learn and better understand past and present human experiences (www.garlandisd.net). A Social Studies teacher experimented using the arts to teach lessons by having her students research southern slave songs, the meaning behind the songs, and had them perform the songs they studied for the class. The students told her that through singing and learning about old slave songs, they learned more and better understood slave life (www.newhorizons.org). Through dramatic interpretation, these students got a different perspective of humankind.
By cutting back on funds to art programs, schools are doing a great disservice to their students. It is understandable that during these hard economic times cut-backs have to be made in order for a school to survive. However, it is not fair to deprive students from an education that provides them with a creative outlet that in turn makes them brighter and more ready for life outside of school than those students who do not participate in art programs. Fine Arts’ presence in school should be equal in treatment and funding as core classes, and available to all students. The skills and lessons they learn from the arts are invaluable and have no substitute. Students deserve the chance to work on their self-confidence, self-esteem, self-discipline, analytical thinking, and their views and perspectives on humanity. Fine arts should be kept in public schools.
Sources:
Cluff, Debbie. “The Importance of Fine Arts in the Classroom.” 23 February 2009. 20 January 2010. http://www.musicedmagic.com/advocacy/the-importance-of-fine-arts-in-the-classroom-2.html.
Dickinson, Dee. “Learning Through the Arts.” New Horizons for Learning. 1997. 20 January 2010. http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/arts/dickinson_lrnarts.htm#skills
Garland Independent School District. “Fine Arts Department”. 2006. 20 January 2010. http://www.garlandisd.net/finearts
