By Jeanni Ritchie
When budget cuts roll around in education circles, the arts are often one of the first things to go. Considered extraneous, they excise programs that are deemed unnecessary to student achievement.
I’d counter that they are removing programs that are not only important, but crucial to student progress.
It is the arts that help us remember the order of the planets from the sun or how each of Henry VIII’s wives died. My oldest daughter recalled a tune I’d written about the solar gravitation pull that helped her answer an ACT question years later.
Arts matter!
I had the privilege of serving as the Arts in Education Director for Central Lousiana’s Family Playhouse in the early 2000’s. We would go into the schools and conduct workshops combining Science and Arts benchmarks for 3rd graders. After lessons in each of four disciplines (Art, Drama, Music, and Dance) the students would select a discipline for the final production. The drama students would rehearse lines for an original play I’d written. (Think Tarzan meets Kim Possible. I always had my finger on the pulse of tween pop culture!) The art students constructed the set, the music students practiced the songs, and the dance students choreographed numbers. The workshop culminated in a performance for parents and the student body.
We did similar workshops with puppets for 5th grade Language Arts.
The students retained more subject knowledge and enjoyed the hands-on learning experiences. Many teachers shared tales of shy students coming out of their shells as well as misbehaving students remaining on task for longer periods.
The arts are vital in education. I’d surmise that there is a direct correlation to the states who prioritize the arts and their high test scores to those who cut the arts and exhibit lower scores.
To celebrate #NationalArtsinEducationWeek, I’d like to share a few famous quotes:
It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance…and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.
– Henry James
The Arts provide a more comprehensive and insightful education because they invite students to explore the emotional, intuituve, and irrational aspects of life that science is hard pressed to explain.
– Charles Fowler
The most significant learning occurs when emotions are integrated with instruction because all body systems are united. The Arts are strongly linked to emotions, enhancing the likelihood that students will remember something.
– Eric Jensen, author of Teaching with the Brain in Mind
Tell me, I forget;
Show me, I remember;
Involve me, I understand.
– Carl Orff
Arts education not only enhances students’ understanding of the world around them, but it also broadens their perspective on traditional academics. The Arts integrate life and learning for all students and are integral in the development of the whole person.
– Dr. Terry Bergeson, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Washington State
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
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
– Gail Godwin
National Arts in Education Week takes place annually during the week beginning with the second Sunday of September.
Jeanni Ritchie is a former educator and contributing journalist. She can be reached at jeanniritchie54@gmail.com.
