Why Is Arts Education Important in School?
And how it can benefit me AND you.
Have you ever wondered why receiving a diverse education in the arts can shape us? Picture this scene. Your teacher gives you a blank piece of paper. It should be a project about anything you want to write about, and your teacher expects you to hand it in in two weeks’ time. Then, all of a sudden, the switch in your head turns off, and your mind goes blank, just like that, and you don’t have the slightest idea what it’s going to be about. With an education in the arts, students get better grades, opens up their minds, make us more creative, and lowers stress levels. For this reason, arts education is essential and should be given in all schools.
Arts education is influential to students, because grades are increasing fast in schools, and students’ academic skills are rising considerably quickly. There are many parts of our brain that awakens and are involved when learning art, which builds lots of deep connections. The New York Times has published a 2013 article, Art Makes You Smart, which describes how students who visit museums have higher test scores. In another two-year-long study conducted at The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, about 11,000 students who have visited it demonstrated stronger critical thinking skills than their peers. There has also been a recent 2019 study that involved 25,000 students. In the study, students who have high learning of art experiences and a better comprehension of it earned higher grades and scored much better on tests than people with almost nothing or just a bit understanding of art. Arts education is a crucial skill to learn at school to get better grades.
Being creative in school and in your overall life has always been important, because you can better deal with uncertainty, and you can always see things from a new perspective. Creativity is a cool way of living life that’s always eager and determined to see and learn new things, especially in schools. In this Scientific American article (titled, ‘Creativity Predicts a Longer Life’), “researchers found that only creativity — not intelligence or overall openness — decreased mortality risk. One possible reason creativity is protective of health is that it draws on a variety of neural networks within the brain.” James Clear says. He proves that being creative in the art can help you live longer, and it can also improve your health and your overall life quality. Being creative in school is important as well — because having the ability to think, and imagine fresh new ideas very well would be a unique and inspiring skill in the future. Arts education in school will always, at all times, allow students to express themselves through any type of art through creativity.
Stress and anxiety have always been common in schools, especially high schools. Students can quickly become overwhelmed, because of the lack of time of studying and sleeping and not having enough time to relax. Now, arts education can definitely reduce unnecessary stress and anxiety in school, and makes students more relaxed and happier, which is something we all want to be, right? A study made by Harvard Health Publishing shows how art (specifically visual art this time) can make someone more restful and undisturbed. “Research has also shown that creating visual art can reduce stress and promote relaxation…” quoted from the study. There has also been a 2015 NYU study that shows that 31% of high school students just feel a bit stressed and that 49% are feeling consistent stress. Another study by eric.ed.gov titled, ‘Does Art Improve Mood?’ shows that after several participants have done a couple of activities, such as making artwork, copying some images down and also doing a word puzzle expanded their mood and made them more pleasant as well. Doing art not only helps students — but also provides it as a distraction from negative emotions, so that a student can focus on one thing, and not another.
However, some people assert that arts education can be expensive at times and that it doesn’t generally improve a student’s learning field, and in fact, is just a waste of time. They insist that it isn’t necessary; students can do just fine without art education in their life. This is not true. Students need arts education in their life, and since arts education in school helps us in so many ways, it shouldn’t be looked at as something unnecessary in school that students don’t require; it should be looked at as an achievement in school since there are evidently so many benefits and advantages to having arts education in school.
Incontrovertibly, arts education has helped lessen stress and boost creativity, as well as get better grades at school, and there are many studies proving this. Arts education is clearly the key to success in school, because of its strength and virtue. Arts education is essential and should be given in all schools due to how benevolent and supporting it is to students and its strong influence.
Bibliography
https://www.senecaacademy.org/10-reasons-why-integrating-art-is-important-in-school/
https://www.edutopia.org/arts-music-curriculum-child-development
https://www.learningliftoff.com/10-reasons-arts-in-education-important-kids/
https://www.yanjep.org/art-does-make-you-smarter-newly-published-research/
https://psmag.com/news/arts-education-reduces-stress-level-of-low-income-students
