The Power of Art Education
By: Marcia Osterink
Understanding the power of the arts in education and putting this knowledge into action can change the atmosphere of your entire school. In my more than 30 years as an art educator, principals and teachers have excitedly been reporting this to me, and I have been observing it firsthand in hundreds of schools.
But today, even with all we know from years of studies, even with the arts sharing equal billing with reading, math, science, and other disciplines as “core academic subjects” in the federal No Child Left Behind Act, high-quality art instruction is being diminished or eliminated as budgets are cut and priorities shifted.
Some educators are placing so much emphasis on standardized test scores that they fear any time spent on the arts will detract from their goals. Ironically, looking at schools with the highest scores on standardized tests generally reveals that the arts are a solid part of their curriculum.
The good news is that there is a dramatic revolution in understanding what many educators have known all along—that the arts are critical to learning and must be a part of every child’s education.
So here, in a nutshell, are the reasons art has the power to transform students, classrooms, and entire schools.
1. Art is at the core of learning.
Rudolph Arnheim, Professor Emeritus from Harvard University in the psychology of art, states that all thought processes rely on images. He goes on to say that every thought starts with an image and that it is a sophisticated processing of visual information that is at the core of all concept formation. And this is exactly what visual art teaches. It teaches students to handle visual information as the main factor in the organization of thought. In studio art, students make the connection between vision and abstraction as they organize their compositions in painting, drawing, and sculpting.
Art students learn to access the right side of the brain. As students are taught to process visual information in a new way, they learn to make a cognitive shift from the left side of the brain to the right. This skill can be applied to all areas of study requiring creative thinking. The right side of the brain is intuitive, spatial, holistic, synthetic, and the place where all imagining, visualization, invention and innovative thinking take place.
2. Learning in the arts contributes to the development of skills in the areas of reading and language arts and mathematics.
A study in 1995 of the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) found that students studying the arts for four or more years scored 59 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 44 points higher on the math portion than students with no course work or experience in the arts. (National Report)
3. Art education promotes self-confidence and growth in other social skills.
Positive self-perceptions repeatedly are shown to aid the student’s development of skills and learning and the perceptions of others. The arts emphasize active engagement, which nurtures motivation to learn and prevents students at risk from dropping out of school.
4. Art education creates children who are sensitive to the world around them.
Students touch, taste, hear, and see the world as they experience creative activity with a sense of joy and wonder.
5. The arts prepare students for jobs.
In a paper titled “Hobbled Arts Limit Our Future,” Robert Root-Bernstein, a physiology professor at Michigan State University and a MacArthur Prize Fellow, reports that high aptitude in arts and music are much more predictive of career success in any field than the results of grades, IQ, achievement, or any other standardized measures. At a time when innovation drives success in companies, the arts are teaching the most sophisticated forms of thinking that are applicable to what the most progressive corporations do.
Despite the convincing evidence that shows art is basic to every child’s education and success, champions are needed to place art at the center of education. Arts education has the power to change the lives of students, the atmosphere of classrooms and the climate of entire schools. Take action and place art education front and center in your school.
Marcia Osterink is the program creator of Arts Attack, www.artsattack.com.
Product Roundup
Scratch-Art Light Catcher Inspired Designs Group Pack
Get kids inspired with these beautiful Light Catchers. Kits feature popular Christian themes. Scratch with the wood drawing stylus and design dazzling “stained glass” window art. Personalize each Light Catcher with unique decorations and drawings. Hang in a window, as sunlight illuminates brilliant glowing colors. The pack includes everything to complete 12 projects: 12 Design Frames, 12 Scratch-Lite Sheets, and 12 heavy-duty wood drawing styluses. It includes three each of the following designs: angel, cross, heart and hands, and Noah’s Ark.
www.scratchart.com
Jonti-Craft’s Sproutz 4 Station Art Center
Jonti-Craft’s Sproutz 4 Station Art Center features material made from recycled wood waste and formaldehyde-free resin. Like all Jonti-Craft products, it also includes several distinctive features that make Jonti-Craft products unique, safe, and affordable. Jonti-Craft’s KYDZSafe edges, KYDZStrong construction, and KYDZTuff finish allow this product to stand up to everyday classroom use. The Sproutz 4 Station Art Center is designed to provide ample elbow room and storage galore to give children a space to let their creativity flow.
www.jonti-craft.com
Center Enterprises’ Ready2Learn
Center Enterprises’ Ready2Learn line provides creativity, quality and value. Artistic sets include giant stampers, arts/craft tools and 12 different color circular paint/ink pads – all tested and approved for direct skin contact. Ready2Learn Stamp sets feature alphabet letters (upper and lower case), numbers, geometric shapes, sea adventure, sea creatures, imaginative play (1 & 2), paw prints, dinosaurs, wild animals, pattern blocks, celestial fun, celebrations, creative art, insects, finger painters, stipple design, twirl-a-pattern, paint and sand tools, paint effects stamps, textures, paint and clay explorers and paint effects tools.
www.centerenterprises.com
Arts Attack Publications
Arts Attack publishes a comprehensive, developmental-sequential visual art curriculum for grades K-8. Using classroom video as the primary motivational and teaching tool, this hands-on, process-oriented program enables any teacher to achieve exceptional classroom results. Available in either DVD or videotape format and consistent with national and state standards, it is used extensively by classroom teachers, parent art docents, and professional art teachers throughout the United States. The Arts Attack curriculum is based on developing skills and understanding through the teaching of art elements and principles.
www.artsattack.com
Blick Art Materials
Blick Art Materials has published the 2008 edition of its Classroom Art Catalog for K–6 educators. The full-color, 194-page book is designed with art teachers and classroom teachers in mind, as well as those who conduct camp, scouting and after-school activities programs. Offering an extensive selection of art supplies and resources, it also includes convenient project kits and Class Packs (economically priced classroom-sized assortments). Fun, unique lesson plans and dozens of full-color photos of sample projects are aimed at helping classroom teachers incorporate art into the core curriculum.
www.dickblick.com
GeeGuide’s geeART
The first curriculum of the GeeGuide’s geeART series, geeART16, utilizes cutting-edge features and content to help reinforce concepts, engage students, assist teachers and bring art and technology to our schools. GeeGuides's geeART16 is an animated, interactive, Web-based art education system, which is more thoughtful, innovative and in-depth than conventional CD-ROM-based programs. This comprehensive curriculum helps students learn the language of art, how it applies to their lives, and how to use it as a form of self-expression.
www.geeguides.com
