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Art Education: “What is the importance of taking an art class in school is if my child is not “talented” or “creative?”

 

Art programs and classes can cause speculation in the eyes of the parents when their children don’t seem to possess the “creative” or “talented” genes. However, what most people are unaware of are the many positive effects these classes have on students. Art in the schools is very beneficial for reasons more than sparking creativity. Although creativity is still vastly important when creating an art piece, there are many other motives as to why the fight to keep art programs running in schools is so strong. Art education teaches students skills applicable in many different settings. Some may think that the practice of art may only be used in areas pertaining to that career, but studies show that numerous occupations use some form of art in their everyday work. No matter what age, art helps students learn to express themselves in additional ways without relying on words to describe emotion. Expression of one’s self is vital in creating a sense of civic engagement among youth. “Art is a rendering of the world and one’s experience within it” (Learning in a Visual Age). Learning how to express your experience in the world is a great way to be aware of your surroundings. Art in the schools is important for all students because it teaches skills not formally taught, prepares you for real world experiences, and it educates expression in many forms.

In addition to learning skills specifically pertaining to art, students are taught an abundance of abilities found in many other aspects of life.  The arts “enable students to identify the problem, gather relevant information, try out solutions, and validate those that are effective” (Learning in a Visual Age). Students are able to apply the same skills to math and science courses as well as using them in everyday life. Studying and practicing art can also assist students in seeing patterns, learning from their mistakes, and envisioning new solutions to any problems. Problem solving is one of the tools that students practice, which can be taught not only in the core subject classes, but in art classes as well. For example, if a student makes a mistake in a drawing they are able to learn how to problem solve and correct the error.  The same if they were in a math class and they make a mistake. All of these tools and skills taught from art classes are applicable in other areas of life as well. Many of them can be used in occupations not specifically categorized in the Liberal Arts classification. In a document created by the National Art Education Association (NAEA), issued in 1977, outlined the persuasive reasons to continue the art programs. Their list included: “Sources of aesthetic experience, sources of human understanding, means of developing creative and flexible forms of thinking, and means of helping students understand and appreciate art” (Learning in a Visual Age). Some believe students should have basic understanding of art, which can only primarily be taught within the schools.

Although many students and parents are mainly focused on the success of standardized tests, art programs help prepare students for beyond the realm of testing. “Students learn a great deal in high-quality visual arts classes that is not captured on standardized tests” (Learning Visual Arts). More likely than not, after college students immediately begin searching for a job. When applying they will need to have certain skills in order to be considered. A study from Boston Arts Academy has art students using a viewfinder, which “helps students to observe- something naturalists, climatologists, writers, and doctors need to know how to do” (Learning Visual Arts). This further explains how art classes are immensely important. Continuing on from the study, “visual arts teachers encourage students to form mental images and use them to solve problems- an ability that chemists and architects use to create models and that inventors use to think up new ideas” (Learning Visual Arts).  These art programs are preparing students for real world experiences beyond the classroom. Journalist Thomas L. Friedman shares “the secret sauce” to maintain the perfect balance between creativity and technical knowledge in his book The World Is Flat. He states that it “comes from our ability to integrate art, music, and literature with the hard sciences” (Learning in a Visual World). Going off of that, the real world experiences integration all the time. “Integration is the new specialty. That is what we need to prepare out children to be doing” (Learning in a Visual World). Integration is an excellent everyday world example that can be further taught through the arts programs. Along with integration, “visual arts instruction helps students learn to value diverse perspectives and cultures, something that is increasingly important in a global society” (Learning in a Visual World). Being able to live with everybody is a skill not taught officially in the classroom, but something everyone should know how to do. Integration is able to let you express yourself, but still being able to mix with everything/everyone around you.

Expression of oneself is fundamental to living. Art is one of the many ways to do that. “The arts stimulate or release imagination by bringing into existence an alternative ‘reality’, young people can envision a world that is different from the world they know” (Learning in a Visual Age). With this new reality, people are able to create things that were never thought to be possible. By opening up this world, it makes it possible to keep creating new worlds. Many ideas are at first deemed as crazy or impossible. “That’s what produces an iPod Revolution or a Google” (Learning in a Visual Age). Schools are teaching students to put new creative ideas into words in English or writing courses. Art classes are a way of releasing these ideas through different forms such as drawing, painting, sculpting, and many more. When observing art people “strive to understand that work- what they see, what it means to each of them, what it makes them feel- they not only make sense of the work, they build community and understanding among themselves” (Learning in a Visual World). People are able to express themselves by looking at other works of art. This is able to happen by the way they let themselves become affected by it.

Without art programs, schools would not be able to teach the many skills of daily life. They also offer a unique way of expressing oneself. If the student doesn’t acquire any artistic talent, they are still able to learn definite abilities that can carry them beyond the art occupations. The importance of taking an art class is more than simply because it is required. It teaches, affects, and prepares each student for real world situations. 

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At one point in my life, I was convinced I was going to be an art teacher. From my Introduction to Art Education class our first paper was about the prompt below. We were given a few different articles to utilize as sources to help us gain a further understanding and stance that we wanted to take. 

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