|
|
Home ::
Why Teach the Arts?
Why Teach the Arts?
-
You want your students to have a
well rounded, culturally rich education.
-
You want to improve your student’s
academic performance.
-
You want to improve your students
overall cognitive development.
-
You want to foster imagination and
creativity in your students.
-
You want to increase your student’s
self awareness and self esteem.
-
You want your students to observe
and appreciate the beauty that is all around.
-
You want to awaken your student’s
passion, emotion, and energy.
- You want your
students to have a well rounded, culturally rich education.
The purpose of education is not only to inform, but to
enrich and enlighten.
Learning about the visual and performing arts
gives students a window onto the rich and interesting world around
them. Through art, children learn about their own history and
culture, as well as the history and culture of others. Visual and
performing arts are the concrete images and sounds of the past and
present. What we know about past cultures, we know chiefly from the
art that they left behind. Through art, the history of particular
people spring to life.
We are surrounded by the arts. Almost nothing is created or
communicated with out the influence of music, art, drama, and
architecture. Familiarity and understanding of the arts and how they
relate to past and present culture completes a child’s education.
[Back To Top]
- You want to
improve your student’s academic performance.
Research concerning the value of arts education
overwhelming supports a correlation between studying the arts and
academic achievement. At a most basic level, studying the arts
creates neural connections between the left and right hemispheres of
the brain, as well as connections between the body and the brain.
Certain forms of art instruction enhance and
complement basic reading skills and language development. Young
children use art as a means of expression that does not rely on
verbal communication or writing skills. Language is applied to the
learning process as children talk about their art projects. Dramatic
activities also increase vocabulary, storytelling skills, and verbal
communication.
Certain types of music instruction help to
develop spatial-temporal reasoning. Spatial temporal reasoning is
essential for obtaining certain math skills. Reasoning that is
naturally explored music can be easily applied to many math skills.
Music is inherently mathematical.
[Back To Top]
- You want to
improve your students overall cognitive development.
Cognitive development refers to a set of
skills that include reasoning ability, perception, problem solving,
and critical thinking. The arts encourage abstract, “out of the box”
thinking skills. These skills are valued by future employers and
higher learning educators. Both groups often site problem solving
and critical thinking as the two predictors of future success.
[Back To Top]
- You want to
foster imagination and creativity in your students.
“Imagination is more important than
knowledge,” is a famous Albert Einstein quote with which almost
everyone is familiar. Imagination is the tool that allows us to
think divergently. Creativity allows us to apply our hard earned
knowledge. Without both imagination and creativity, there would be
no progress. Historian Eugene Ferguson said it this way: “Pyramids,
cathedrals, and rockets exist not because of geometric theories of
structures, or thermodynamics, but because they were first a
picture-literally a vision-in the minds of those who built them.”
[Back To Top]
- You want to
increase your student’s self awareness and self esteem.
Arts programs give students an opportunity to take risks and try new
things. Success in these areas builds positive self-esteem. Students
with positive self esteem feel confident in their ability to learn,
grow, and contribute to others.
[Back To Top]
- You want your
students to observe and appreciate the beauty that is all around.
Children are naturally curious and highly
observant. These skills of observation must be practiced in order to
carry them into adulthood. This process requires not only an active
mind, but a trained mind. The arts are full of beauty and wonder,
giving students opportunity to practice observation and appreciation
and train their minds to continue these skills.
[Back To Top]
- You want to
awaken your student’s passion, emotion, and energy.
Music speaks to our hearts. Art awakens our
emotions. Unlike any other academic pursuit, the arts are an avenue
to the soul. Understanding and appreciating the arts awakens
children’s emotion and passion, two essential ingredients in
presenting the Gospel to the world.
[Back To Top]
|
|
|
