Importance of art free essay sample

Why is art important? This is a question many parents ask themselves when they are enrolling their child in school. â€Å"Arts education does solve problems. Years of research show that it is closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity† (Smith). It is a proven fact that children involved in art make higher grades than children that are not involved. Exposure to the arts provides many important advantages because it affects the growth and progress of children and benefits children in many learning environments. Art is important to children in their developmental years because they are able to express themselves. You should start teaching art as early as possible. It also improves their learning process. Art makes children look forward to learning. Schools that have art programs usually have higher attendance. That is because students get excited about that art class and want to go to school and participate instead of their parents making them go to school. If there was no art in school, there would be more children dropping out and getting themselves in trouble. In some Dallas schools, they had budget cuts and had to cut some subjects and art was among those things. Many people worked to get art put back in some of those schools. Those people know how important art is and did their best to get it back for the children. Now the children are getting about forty five minutes a week of an art class of some sort. If a child starts in kindergarten, they will learn how to be confident, how to concentrate and focus, and also how to interact with people. Some children are shy and by participating they will learn how to do all of those things. Russell Granet stated, â€Å"When I grew up, it was standard to have a music teacher and a visual arts teacher, and you almost always did a school musical†. If a child starts in kindergarten, they will learn how to be confident, how to concentrate and focus, and also how to interact with people. Some children are shy and by participating they will learn how to do all of those things. Russell Granet stated, â€Å"When I grew up, it was standard to have a music teacher and a visual arts teacher, and you almost always did a school musical†. Schools that went without art classes suffered greatly. For example some schools in New York were doing budget cuts and decided to cut most of their art classes and their student graduation rate wasn’t as high. Once the art classes were put back in progress, the graduation rate went back up. Russell Granet stated â€Å"There was a study asking graduates what they remembered most about kindergarten through twelfth grade, more than fifty percent said it was an arts experience†. People rarely think of arts education as survival skills. Ken Jarboe stated, â€Å"All these skills observing, envisioning, innovating through exploration, and reflective self- evaluation is exactly what is needed†. In this quotation, Jarboe is saying art gives you all kinds of skills used to be successful. Russell Granet stated, â€Å"I worked on a program that brought arts back into the curriculum at New York City middle schools. We worked at a school in Bed- Stuy, when I first went there; I walked the halls and didn’t feel safe. The school had low attendance, low test scores; morale was low. Within three years, it was a different place†. In this quotation, Granet is saying he knew the best way to get that school back on its feet was to work his hardest and get art put back in that school. Arts education has a measurable impact on at-risk youth in preventing delinquent behavior and absence problems while also increasing overall academic performance among those youth engaged in after school and summer arts programs targeted toward delinquency prevention. Ken Jarboe stated, â€Å"There is a good reason to teach art in schools, and it is not the one that art supporters tend to fall back on. Arts education is becoming as important as standardized test†. In this quotation Jarboe is saying it is a good reason to teach art in schools and art is as important as a standardized test. Some Reasons to take art in high school are to do something different and to do something challenging. An additional reason is a student might find a hidden talent. â€Å"Explaining the benefits of art children experiences a sense of freedom while learning† (Srivastava). While in art children, feel like they have the freedom to draw whatever and express themselves. For preschool children, art benefits them in drawing, sculpting and other visual arts. It also helps in memorizing things such as a story or song. Programs in art education can potentially help students to excel in other academic areas, particularly in reading and math. About ninety-three percent of Americans believe that art is vital in providing an artistic outlet for children. About eighty-six percent of Americans â€Å"agree an arts education encourages and assists in the improvement of a child’s attitude toward school† (Ruppert 5). About eighty-three percent of Americans believe that arts education helps teach children how to communicate. About seventy-nine percent of Americans â€Å"agree incorporating the arts into education is the first step in adding back what’s missing in public education today† (Ruppert 5). Another seventy-nine percent of Americans believe â€Å"it is important enough for them to get involved in the amount and quality of arts education† (Ruppert 5). About fifty-four percent of Americans rate the importance of art a ten on a scale from one to ten (Ruppert 5). Participating in art activities help children in understanding human experiences, adapting to and respecting others ways of thinking and ideas. Art class feels like a safe haven from the outside world, a place for them to really get in touch with themselves and healthily express their pain and frustration. It also provides structure for activities outside of school such as family activities. The families not only learn more about art but also learn how to get along with each other because some families do not and the only time that child is happy is when they are at school away from that family. For a young person’s growth and development, being educated in art is considered to be important. Art stimulates and develops a child’s imagination. Creating art projects is a way to stimulate a child’s imagination. For example, giving a child Legos and letting them build whatever they want. It also has a tremendous impact in teaching life skills. Some benefits arts education provides are it develops problem-solving skills, heightens self-esteem, allows for expression and creativity, improves academic performance, improves visual discrimination skills, improves concentration, and improves social skills. Another benefit is hand-eye coordination. For example, holding a narrow paint brush and cutting with scissors. Another benefit of art a person acquires is expresses a deeper understanding of culture and history. Like what was said before art helps with memorizing things and that helps in memorizing different dates in history. If a student misses a math class, he or she would be missing out on some important information for that day and will be behind for a while. The same goes for art. The skills learned in art cannot be learned anywhere else. Art benefits the brain by teaching it to think outside the box. It helps children understand concepts easier. Art education teaches life skills such as learning to solve problems and make decisions. It also nurtures important values. Art improves cognitive abilities and provides individuals with the ability to enjoy the life encouraging desires of making art. Other benefits art offers are team-building skills, respecting different perspectives and being aware of diverse beliefs and backgrounds. In art classes, a student will have to learn how to work together asking for help, or even having to work on a drawing together. If a student does have to work with another person on a painting or drawing a student will have to listen to that person’s ideas and if both of them have different viewpoints on something, each will have to respect that person’s viewpoints and vise versa. The same goes for being aware of different cultures and traditions. The arts also add to the education of young children by helping them realize the extent of human experience, see the diverse ways humans express feelings and convey meaning, and improve delicate and complex forms of thinking. Some people may paint or draw when they are feeling down or hurt. Art also helps children how to concentrate and focus while they are doing different things such as studying or trying to memorize something word for word. With that being said it helps you to gain more knowledge when it comes to your school subjects because you are learning how to concentrate. Some people were not able to be in any art classes when they were in school so they learn about art when their child comes home and tells them about it. The child is so excited about a drawing they drew or a painting they painted and they want to show their parents. The parents see how happy and excited their child is and wants to continue to have their child in that specific art class because they see their cheerfulness. â€Å"Attendance is higher in schools with art programs† (Granet) and this is why. It is a proven fact that when an art of some sort is combined with a core subject students seem to learn it better than not having that art included in that lesson. For example if a student is in a Spanish class learning new words and the Spanish teacher adds a fun activity to help the students learn those specific words. For instance, if the students are learning how to say different types of clothing the teacher could have an activity where the students are participating in a fashion show and while one student is walking down the runway the students that are watching is writing down what they are wearing and that is a way for those students to learn and it makes it fun for them. In conclusion participating in arts education in your school years is extremely important because you learn valuable skills. A person learns skills used for everyday life such as having self-esteem, problem-solving skills, and teaches a person to be creative. Also most Americans believe art in school is important because it teaches a child how to communicate with another person and in today’s society if you don’t know how to talk to someone or talk in front of someone and not be nervous that person is going to have a hard time trying to get a job. Also most people believe art in school prevents students to interact in bad behavior.