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Much too often in America today, modern music and art programs in schools are perceived to many as extracurricular activities rather than important subjects that are vital to a students learning and skill development. The truth of the matter is that encouraging music and art education in public schools has a much larger impact on student’s grades, academic performance, and the economy than the majority people realize. Within the next year city school budgets will be dropping by twenty five percent, and despite the fact that music and art programs have been showing a dramatic contribution to student’s learning, this substantial drop in funding for the programs will lead to no dedicated money for art or music programs (Mezzacappa). There is no doubt that a cut in funding for art programs will take a huge toll on students overall grades and test scores. Research has found that the studying of music and art facilitates learning in other subjects and enhances children’s skills in other areas (Brown). Furthermore, providing students with a creative outlet can do great justice in reducing the stress from many other classes and even offer insight for students in possible career paths involving the art field. The art industry today currently supports 4.1 million full-time jobs (Dorfman). By increasing the funding of music and art programs for students preschool through twelfth grade we can see a dramatic increase in the education of children across the United States, assist with skill development in young students, and greatly benefit the economy at the same time. In education today, art studies are not often viewed as a priority for students and they very frequently get cut from school’s curriculum due to a lack of proper funding. Howeve... ... middle of paper ... ...d students. Works Cited "11 Facts about Arts in Education." Do Something. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013. Brown, Laura Lewis. "The Benefits of Music Education." PBS Parents. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013. Burton, David. "Exhibiting Student Art." Virginia Commonwealth University Journal 57.6 (2004): 41. eLibrary. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. Dorfman, Aaron. "Funding for the Arts Sometimes Benefits All of Us." Huffington Post. Huffington, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013. "Fact Sheet about the Benefits of Arts Education for Children." Americans for the Arts. Americans for the Arts, Aug. 2009. Web. 24 Oct. 2013 Mandel, Lauren. "Promoting Arts Education in Libraries." American Library Association 46.6 (2007): n. pag. eLibrary. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. Mezzacappa, Dale. "High School Budgets down 25 Percent." The Notebook. Philadelphia Schools, n.d. Web. 7 Nov. 2013
We are constantly being bombarded with visual culture throughout every hour of the day, though at times it may seem overwhelming and desensitizing, it is only getting more prevalent. Paul Duncum is an art educator who is corporating these aspects of visual culture in the classroom everyday and also teaching his students to do this as well. I have talked about Paul Duncum educational history, his contributions to art education, his teaching philosophy, and how I can use his beliefs and teachings in my future as an art educator. With my new found knowledge of Paul Duncum and his teaches, I hope, as a future educator to follow in his footsteps of incorporation of our society’s importance of visual art in my classroom.
Throughout history music has played an important role in society, whether it was Mozart moving people with his newest opera or the latest album from the Beatles. Where would society be today without music? With schools cutting their music programs, the next Mozart may not get his chance to discover his amazing talent. Music programs are essential to education. To fully understand this one must understand how music helps the human body, why schools have cut music programs, and why people should learn music.
The Art Bulletin, Vol. 57, No. 2 (Jun., 1975), pp. 176-185. (College Art Association), accessed November 17, 2010. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3049368.
Holcomb, Sabrina. "Arts Education." Rss. National Education Association, 17 Jan. 2007. Web. 10 May 2016.
Reed, Peter. "The Artist." Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. Florida Altantic University, 1999. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.
A recent development in public education has been the decline in arts programs nationwide. Budget cuts to arts programs are responsive to decreases in state funding, especially in states with conservative economic policies. Many states have also enacted legislation disabling local school districts’ abilities to justify employing art and music teachers. Consequently, several problems have manifested themselves, including the loss of arts programs proving detrimental to the overall quality of education for today’s children. First and foremost, arts programs improve overall performance in core school subjects; this is demonstrated clearly through higher test scores amongst students with exposure to arts and positive correlations between arts and core class engagement. Other reasons supporting retaining arts programs include to help foster community development, produce creative minds, develop problem-solving skills, aid in child development and visual-spatial skills, and encourage underprivileged students to remain in school (Metla, 2015). By removing arts programs from some public schools, an alarming issue of public concern arises. Public education, given that it is considered to be a non-rivalrous and non-excludable, is deemed a public good (Clark, 2016). Cutting arts programs in public schools, especially when cuts transpire in schools saturated with heavy minority populations, creates inequitable education and creates a serious issue of public concern.
I am a prospective art history major and visual studies minor. To me, art has been a passion rooted in my very soul and an inseparable part of my life ever since I started painting at nine years old. However, where I come from, pursuing art is rarely respected or supported. As a result, I spent both my freshmen and sophomore year as a STEM major. Yet throughout my freshmen year, experiencing art while visiting New York was the fountain of my happiness. I can still vividly remember the holiday windows, New York Fashion Week, and especially the artworks in countless galleries and museums I visited. Spurred by my thirst for art, I took an Asian art history course, where I got to examine how philosophy, politics and local culture shaped Asian art by studying monuments, paintings and calligraphy. Art sustained me through the many frustrations of academic pressure and cultural barriers, and I became determined to make art my life’s pursuit.
In order to properly examine the level of necessity for music classes, the economic and social conditions must be explored for the following question: How can increasing musical intelligence at an early age benefit a person later in life? Ever since the recession hit America, states have cut school funding. General funding per student is lower than it was in 2008 for half of the nation’s states. In order to try and increase money availability for schools, both school districts and individual schools have taken action in the form of job cuts, which, in turn, further harm the economy.
A fine arts education including music, drawing, painting, and photography has been a part of a well rounded curriculum for decades, but soon that may be changing. The fine arts department in the public education system has constantly been barraged with budget cuts. On several occasions, The Texas Education Agency has repeatedly refused to provide sufficient financial aid to back up important funds that are set up to benefit our youths. These funds are are now coming from parents in a desperate attempt to keep several deemed “unnecessary” programs from shutting down. Not only does the art and music education is essential to the children's learning process, it also grants them the proficiency to mature and become versatile citizens, and why together as a state, we needed to campaign together to save these programs.
In most recent years, schools have been fighting to keep music programs alive in school systems across the nation. Some schools believe that due to budget factors, music should be cut out of the academic program, to save some money. But what is widely unknown is that schools that have good music programs do better in areas of math and sometimes reading. A high tech music program called Kodaly, was instituted into the schools of Hungary. If a person were to look at the school today, there are “…no third graders who cannot sing on pitch and sing beautifully” (Dickinson, 1993, p.1). Also, the students of the Hungarian schools academic achievement in math and science “ continues to be outstanding” (Dickinson, 1993, p.1). Another report shows that schools that spend 20% to 30% of their day on music (or the arts), have the highest academic achievement (Dickinson, 1993). One study was conducted involving first and second graders at two Rhode Island public elementary schools to show the effects of musical training on academic achievement. In this study, 96 children were used between the ages of 5-7 in eight first grade classrooms. Four of the classrooms were used as control classrooms, which received the standard amount of musical training; forty-five minutes of music that alternates weeks. The other four classrooms were called “test arts“ classrooms. These classrooms received an hour of music per week. After seven months of this training, the students were all given a standardized test. It was then concluded from the tests, that 77% of the “test arts” classes “…were now at grade level or above in mathematics, as compared to 55% of those in the control groups” (MENC, #1). This clearly shows that if ...
Lewis, R., & Lewis, S. (2008). The Power of Art. Connecticut, United States: Cengage Learning.
In today’s society anything can be considered “Art”. From the great sounds of a symphony, to the architecture of a modern structure, or even an elephant painting with its trunk, art is what the viewer perceives it to be. Individuals will always agree or disagree with the message behind a certain piece of art, as pieces can be offensive to some, but beautiful to others. Some argue that funding the arts in school is a waste of money, time, or a combination of both, but the benefits outweigh the negatives by far, due to a variety of reasons.
“Every student in the nation should have an education in the arts.” This is the opening statement of “The Value and Quality of Arts Education: A Statement of Principles,” a document from the nation’s ten most important educational organizations. The basic message is that music and art programs in the schools help our kids and communities in real and substantial ways. There is an abundant amount of facts and information that supports this statement. The benefits of arts education can be narrowed down into 4 basic categories: success in developing intelligence, success in ...
Art can be used to raise scores in every subject, “Students who took four years of art classes scored 91 points higher on their SAT exams than those who took half a year or less. Multiple studies also confirmed that there is a correlation between art engagement and students’ other achievements.” (Valeriya Metla) Even with the research linking art and better grades some educators think that it is more worth while to only focus on the core classes because it is more important to fund what is being tested than to help raise children who are creative.
Kaiser, M. (2002, June). National standards of art education. Retrieved October 29th, 2002 from http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/. Provides the national standards for art education. Also has teaching materials and professional resources for art educators.