Are the arts important in education?

With so much emphasis placed upon accountability, student achievement, and slim budgets in today's public schools, the question is often asked whether the arts justify a place in the daily curriculum. Not surprisingly, those of us in the arts support the notion that the arts are important and should be included. We are not alone. According to the results of a June 2005 Harris Poll, 89% of the Americans surveyed feel that the arts are important enough to be taught, while 79% believe that schools do not provide enough arts education. A whopping 93 % consider the arts essential to a well-rounded education. Many of those Americans surveyed agreed that arts curriculum is essential to restoring what is missing in schools.

It seems that the public recognizes what arts educators have known all along. The arts, when a central part of the general curriculum and taught in meaningful ways, develop deep thinkers. Such critical thinking skills translate across the curriculum and eventually impact the all-important test scores; scores that serve as a yardstick for measuring how well schools perform. In other words, the arts are important to education.

SAT Scores

Take a look at 2004 scores of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) as reported by the College Review Board. High school students who took arts classes scored consistently better than their non-arts peers. For example, in comparison to their non-arts peers, students who took music history or appreciation course work scored an average of 63 points higher on the verbal section of the SAT and an average of 41 points higher on the math section. Similarly, students in drama, art appreciation and studio scored significantly higher than their non-arts peers. Coincidence? Unlikely. Scores from previous years indicate similar disparities between the scores for arts and non-arts high school students.

Nationwide research from a variety of universities, associations, and foundations suggests that positive relationships exist between and among the arts and other subjects. For instance, it is not unusual to read how studying the arts contributes to the development of better reading and math skills in young children or vocabulary acquisition, written elaboration, and verbal communication in non-English-speaking learners. Administrators often report that when students are provided arts classes, delinquency and truancy rates fall.

At-Risk Students 

It was intriguing to watch a group of fifth-grade students in Texas who were predicted to be at risk of failing the reading comprehension portion of their mandated state exam. Because of an arts intervention, they all succeeded. These students were fortunate. Their teacher had attended seminars in teaching through the arts and was innovative in her application of the complex processes. By providing opportunities for these at-risk students to carefully observe and interpret masterworks of art, they soon grasped concepts such as fact and opinion, determining reasonableness, and finding the main idea.

A similar problem presented itself when another Texas school with a large population of non-English-speaking students was declared at-risk because of poor test scores. An art museum stepped up to the plate to address this issue. After the museum adopted the school, the galleries became extensions of the classroom. Student groups frequented the museum where explorations of the works of art closely tied to classroom learning objectives. Soon these students were applying their skills of reading a work of art to reading a work of literature. Within a year, the school was removed from the at-risk list.

Without a doubt, better test scores and educational improvements point to the importance of art in education; however, the arts are much more. The arts define what it is to be human. Among the many benefits of arts education, consider these few examples:

* The arts empower children to communicate ideas that words and numbers cannot always adequately express.

* The arts provide opportunities to explore other cultures and times, teaching tolerance for other's heritage and belief systems while valuing the individual.

* The arts encourage multiple responses, respecting that the questions are often as important as the answers. In the arts, there are many correct and valid responses.

* The arts teach flexibility in thinking, a mandate for success in a global society.

* The arts teach students to continue searching for meaning and understanding.

Evidence supports the arts as fundamental to learning and on equal footing with other rigorous courses of study. Indeed, the No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law in 2002, includes the arts as core content alongside math, science, language arts, and social studies. As such, the arts have their own academic standards. They are not ornamental, nor are they meant as support systems for other subjects. The arts are substantial and require commitment by students and educators alike.

Are the arts important in education? I submit that they are more than important. The arts are central-the arts are at the heart of all we need to know and should be teaching.

Pam Stephens is a member of the SchoolArts advisory board and coordinates the art education program at Northern Arizona University. Pamela.Stephens@ NAU.edu