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Art in Schools
Proposition: Art education should be included in school curricula.
Introduction: How many of you remember taking art in elementary school? Did it positively affect you? Did you remember it as you got older?
- Art helps you develop motor skills, creativity, focus, and has many other positive benefits.
- Teaches emotional expression, persistence, hand-eye coordination, problem solving, and confidence.
- Associated with greater academic success overall.
- Especially in early childhood, art helps students learn abstract concepts in other disciplines. Especially helps visual learners.
- According to the School Superintendents’ Association, art education helps develop essential cognition tools, especially regarding empathic responsiveness. The earlier we encourage this, the more hopeful our future.
- Confidence in art spills over into skills in science and math.
- Educators have been debating STEM vs. STEAM.
- Proponents of focusing on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) argue that it is crucial to our economy.
- Historically, innovative figures like Steve Jobs and Leonardo Da Vinci have shown that science and art do not have to be considered at odds with each other.
- We should include the arts in STEAM and better equip children for a future of innovation.
- Arts have seen a resurgence as a core component of curricula.
- Authorities in education recognize the arts’ relationship with success in other areas of study. However, low-income areas are less likely to have arts programs, though they are the most in need of them.
- In 2007, the Dallas Independent School District implemented the Dallas Arts Learning Initiative (DALI). New York City, Chicago, and Minneapolis have established similar programs. Involved schools have seen improved attendance rates and grades.
- Some people think art is superficial, that it is only a plaything for those who have the time, but art benefits society. In schools, it can be a short term focus that has long term benefits.
Conclusion: Citizens still advocate for the arts with organizations such as Americans for the Arts and the National Art Education Association. Art is a healthy, creative part of a child’s life and is important to a child’s development.