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We must include the arts in the education of all students if we want our children to be prepared for the challenges of life and work in our global society. The challenges of today, and most certainly of tomorrow, require the abilities, skills, habits, and knowledge that education in the arts is uniquely able to provide
Kent Seidel, PhD
Commissioned by the Association for the Advancement of Arts Education
The 'back-to-basics' curriculum, while it has merit, ignores the most urgent void in our present system - absence of self-discipline. The arts, inspiring - indeed requiring - self-discipline, may be more basic to our national survival than the traditional credit courses.
Paul Harvey, nationally syndicated radio commentator
The arts are fundamental resources through which the world is viewed, meaning is created, and the mind developed
Elliot W Eisner, Professor of Education and Art, Stanford University
The arts must be at the heart of every child's learning experience if…they are to have a chance to dream and to create, to have beliefs, to carry a sense of cultural identity
James D Wolfensohn, former chairman of The Kennedy Center
A statement of education reform, standards, and the arts from the Association for the Advancement of Arts Education.
The arts are worth studying simply because of what they are. Their impact cannot be denied. Throughout history, all the arts have served to connect our imaginations with the deepest questions of human existence: Who am I? What must I do? Where am I going? Studying responses to those questions through time and across cultures - as well as acquiring the tools and knowledge to create one's own responses - is essential not only to understanding life but to living it fully.
The arts are used to achieve a multitude of human purposes: to present issues and ideas, to teach or persuade, to entertain, to decorate or please. Becoming literate in the arts helps students understand and do these things better.
The arts are integral to every person's daily life. Our personal, social, economic, and cultural environments are shaped by the arts at every turn - from the design of the child's breakfast placemat, to the songs on the commuter's car radio, to the family's night-time TV drama, to the teenager's Saturday dance, to the enduring influences of the classics.
The arts offer unique sources of enjoyment and refreshment for the imagination. They explore relationships between ideas and objects and serve as links between thought and action. Their continuing gift is to help us see and grasp life in new ways.
There is ample evidence that the arts help students develop the attitudes, characteristics, and intellectual skills required to participate effectively in today's society and economy. The arts teach self-discipline, reinforce self-esteem, and foster the thinking skills and creativity so valued in the workplace. They teach the importance of teamwork and cooperation. They demonstrate the direct connection between study, hard work, and high levels of achievement.
Kent Seidel, PhD
Commissioned by the Association for the Advancement of Arts Education
The Benefits of Arts Education
Arts education benefits the student because it cultivates the whole child, gradually building many kinds of literacy while developing intuition, reasoning, imagination, and dexterity into unique forms of expression and communication. This process requires not merely an active mind but a trained one. An education in the arts benefits society because students of the arts gain powerful tools for understanding human experiences, both past and present. They learn to respect the often very different ways others have of thinking, working, and expressing themselves. They learn to make decisions in situations where there are no standard answers. By studying the arts, students stimulate their natural creativity and learn to develop it to meet the needs of a complex and competitive society. And, as study and competence in the arts reinforce one other, the joy of learning becomes real, tangible, and powerful.
There is evidence that working with the arts, especially in grades kindergarten through seven, develops students' minds and bodies in ways that enable them to learn better. The arts, particularly music, dance, and visual art, develop neural connections and body/brain connections which further learning in many areas, including math, reading, writing, and general language development. Having students work with creative drama and theatre in these earlier grades gives them a great advantage in their capacity for developing language skills, reading, writing, and verbal, and interpersonal skills. And all of the arts help students develop emotionally and socially, so that they are more prepared to deal with school, life, and other people.
The arts represent ways of knowing and interacting with the world around us. They let us experiment with new ways of thinking and doing, and encourage us to stretch our limits and develop our minds, bodies, and emotions.
All of the arts are effective in keeping kids in school, in reaching students at-risk and students with distinctive learning styles, and in helping to develop a more disciplined educational environment in which students' energies are directed at learning and creating. The arts not only make education more interesting, they literally make learning accessible to many students for the first time.
The arts also help students develop key 'habits of mind' that include creativity, critical thinking, the ability to pose and solve problems, self discipline, and self confidence. These skills are necessary for success in the arts and, once learned, can translate to success in other areas of school and life.
There is other recent research to indicate that the arts teach students to become self-motivated learners and to use time and other resources effectively - important skills in school and business.
The arts themselves are important for students to understand. We are surrounded by arts - almost nothing is created or communicated without their influence, and we are influenced continuously by music, art, drama and dramatic media, dance and movement.
And there is evidence that when the arts are connected in meaningful ways with other subject areas, students comprehend and retain more about the subjects involved. Arts programmes have been quite effective in teaching math, science, reading, writing, general language development, history, and social studies.
In addition, there are numerous good examples of how the arts have aided in the teaching of other languages, including English as a foreign language; and how the arts assist teachers in more effectively reaching students with disabilities and learning disorders.
The arts are the voice and the record of a people. What we know about past cultures, we learn chiefly from the arts that they leave behind. It is not surprising, then, to discover that the arts are very good at teaching students many skills which they need in order to live and work in a society. Interpersonal skills; the ability to work in teams; an understanding, tolerance, and even appreciation for diversity in people and ideas; and the ability to lead and communicate effectively with groups are all strengthened through participation in the arts.
Our review of research and arts programmes strongly supports the need to include dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts in education for all students. It seems clear that sustained, carefully planned programmes in the arts are quite effective in preparing children to succeed in school, work, and life. Particularly strong are those programs which:
are school based have a sequential curriculum in the arts
include school arts specialists include community artists and arts organisations
include a clear assessment component, and
connect the arts with other subject areas in the school
The research tells us what the arts can do. Hundreds of well documented school and community arts programmes around the nation tell us how we can make the arts a valuable part of education for all students. Our commitment is all that is necessary to enlist the arts to help lead our children to success.
Kent Seidel, PhD
Commissioned by the Association for the Advancement of Arts Education (1996 AAAE)
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