It's a sad recourse that one has to justify a subject in school or in life, because of this country's current over-obsession with test scores in Math, English, and Science. Especially when the public has been brainwashed to thinkk that Art and Music are not as important as the big three... or in many cases- sports. The creative arts can help/influence students in Math, English, and Science, as well as sports as well as create many positive applications for children and adult alike. The Arts are flexible. They promote higher thinking and learning, they encourage crwativity and unique thinking. Unique thinking (marketing, invention, etc.) makes money! Look at Apple Inc.
Arts and business go hand in hand.
Look at creative people people:
+ Steve Jobs, he dropped out of school, was fired from his own company and later turned Apple into a unique tech powerhouse that battles with Exxon foe the world's wealthiest company. Creativity! Uniques. The creative use of art and design or make money.
+ Walt Disney, was told by his teachers that he would not amount to anything because he loved to draw. As of 2012, The Disney company is worth- $72.124 billion... and it started with the art of drawing of a mouse. Art sells!
+ James Cameron has made the top two grossing movies. Both used extensive computer graphics. CGI is art, made by artists.
+ Videogames. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 sales reached $1 billion in JUST 15 days! There is money in the art industry.
EDUCATION: Why is art important?
They solve problems from different points of view and thinking-skills.
Art stimulates and develops the imagination and critical thinking, and refines cognitive and creative skills.
Has a tremendous impact on the developmental growth of every child and has proven to help level the "learning field" across socio-economic boundaries.
Strengthens problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, adding to overall academic achievement and school success.
Develops a sense of craftsmanship, quality task performance, and goal-setting—skills needed to succeed in the classroom and beyond.
Teaches children life skills such as developing an informed perception; articulating a vision; learning to solve problems and make decisions; building self-confidence and self-discipline; developing the ability to imagine what might be; and accepting responsibility to complete tasks from start to finish.
Nurtures important values, including team-building skills; respecting alternative viewpoints; and appreciating and being aware of different cultures and traditions.
Art plays a central role in cognitive, motor, language, and social-emotional development.
Motivates and engages children in learning, stimulates memory, facilitates understanding, enhances symbolic communication, promotes relationships, and provides an avenue for building competence.
Provides a natural source of learning. Child development specialists note that play is the business of young children; play is the way children promote and enhance their development. The arts are a most natural vehicle for play.
Ninety-one percent of adults believe the arts are vital to a well-rounded education.
Ninety-five percent of adults believe the arts teach intangibles such as creativity, self-expression, and individualism.
Seventy-six percent of adults somewhat or strongly agree that arts education is important enough to get personally involved. However, just thirty-five percent of those who are closely involved in the life of a child have done so.
Eighty-nine percent of adults believe that arts education is important enough that schools should find the money to ensure inclusion in the curriculum.
Ninety-six percent agree the arts belong to everyone, not just the fortunate or privileged.
Art is defined as something aesthetic to the senses. A “work of art” is both an activity and a result; it is a noun and a verb. “One of the great aims of education is to make it possible for people to be engaged in the process of creating themselves. Artists and scientists are alike in this respect.”
Arts curricula is typically process-driven and relationship based, so its impact on academic performance is often underestimated and undervalued. The arts provide a logical counterbalance to the trend of standardized testing and should not be marginalized just because the curriculum is more difficult to measure.
The emphasis and time given to a particular school subject sends a message to students about how important that subject is in life.
Arts programs, especially those including trained professionals, can help draw students out of “formal” ways of approaching relationships, outcomes, and perceptions.
The arts can play a crucial role in improving students’ abilities to learn, because they draw on a range of intelligences and learning styles, not just the linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences upon which most schools are based.
A student making music experiences the “simultaneous engagement of senses, muscles, and intellect. Brain scans taken during musical performances show that virtually the entire cerebral cortex is active while musicians are playing.”
“Dramatic play, rhyming games, and songs are some of the language-rich activities that build pre-reading skills.” (Young Children and the Arts: Making Creative Connection, 1998, p. 1)
“Preschoolers who were given music keyboard lessons improved their spatial-temporal reasoning…used for understanding relationships between objects such as calculating a proportion or playing chess.”
“Creative activity is also a source of joy and wonder, while it bids its students to touch, taste, hear, and see the world. Children are powerfully affected by storytelling, music, dance, and the visual arts. They often construct their understanding of the world around musical games, imaginative dramas and drawing.”
“Regular, frequent instruction in drama and sign language created higher scores in language development for Head Start students than for a control group.”
“Listening to music for just an hour a day changes brain organization…EEG results showed greater brain coherence and more time spent in the alpha state.”
