Do You Have to Take a Musical Art Class to Graduate

These days, it sometimes feels art education is under attack. The culture of high-stakes testing has increased over the terminal decade. In this climate, art educators need to justify our programs more than ever earlier. How tin can nosotros help people understand why art education is important?

We've all seen the information suggesting students who have art classes have higher Sat scores. It is an argument used often to defend our identify on the educational landscape. "Kids who take art classes receive higher standardized test scores." "Art students have higher GPAs than students who do not take any fine art classes." These are mutual arguments for the importance of fine art classes.

The thing is, these arguments miss the point. The arts are valuable. They should be an of import element in any well-rounded instruction. The importance of fine art pedagogy does not prevarication in its ability to raise test scores.

Here is why we need to change our argument for the importance of art education.

At that place is only acorrelation between test scores and fine art classes.

A correlation means there is a connectedness between two things. Only it doesn't mean we knowwhy that connection is there.

If you call back statistics class, you lot know there is a big deviation betweencorrelation andcausation. Merely because there is a connection (correlation) betwixt art classes and test scores, it does not mean the arts are the cause of the increased scores (causation).

Students who take art classes may already exist high achievers. Or perhaps students with lower GPAs are not taking art classes because their schedule is filled with remedial academic classes. There just isn't data to support the idea that arts classes really cause higher test scores or GPAs.

By arguing the arts increase scores on standardized tests, we are missing the signal.

If fine art education's but importance were to increase scores in other subjects, and so why not just cutting art entirely? Then schools could increase math or scientific discipline instruction time.

Did that give you chills? Yeah, me too. Because when we frame our argument but around test scores, it opens the door to this bleak option.

Art education has many unique qualities. Students develop skills in art that aid them find success in many other areas of life. These skills help students well subsequently the tests and schooling are done. The statement that our classes help students achieve higher test scores distracts from the truthful value of art didactics.

So, what should we be proverb instead?

Instead of explaining fine art's value to other disciplines, nosotros should be focusing on the unique qualities of art course. There are many examples of valuable skills taught in fine art.

Fine art develops unique "habits of mind."

Harvard'southward Project Nada developed the Studio Habits of Mind almost a decade ago. These habits develop naturally when engaging in fine art-making.

These habits of mind provide fine art educators with a stiff framework outlining the unique skills adult in art form. These habits include the ability to:

• Develop Craft
• Appoint & Persist
• Envision
• Express
• Observe
• Reflect
• Stretch & Explore
• Understand Art Worlds

These habits transfer to many other areas of school and life. They are also highly valued past employers.

Art builds students' capacity for critical thinking, self-directed learning, and problem-solving.

Critical thinking and problem-solving are alive and well in the art room. The process of analyzing and creating art challenges students to develop these skills. Art students are given open-ended problems to solve. This encourages them to think critically to solve bug in their own unique fashion.

These skills transfer to many other areas of life. And they cannot be assessed on a standardized examination.

Art helps students empathise cultures beyond their own.

Nosotros live in an increasingly global world. It is important for our students to leave school with a wide understanding of the world and its cultures. Art classes expose students to art from all over the world. This exposure helps them sympathise our shared humanity. The report of art history also helps highlight the issues of the past and the present.

Art develops communication skills.

When art students clarify an artwork, they apply art vocabulary to limited their ideas. Discussions about art build students' capacities to listen to and learn from one some other. When a pupil creates an artwork, they make careful choices to communicate their ideas. And when reflecting nearly art-making through artist statements, students are further developing these skills.

Fine art activities consistently rank highest on Blossom's Taxonomy.

I often attend professional development meetings with colleagues from other disciplines. In these meetings, I hear leaders encourage teachers to hit the higher levels of Blossom'southward Taxonomy in their lesson plans.

In art course, nosotros are always engaging our students in these highest levels of thinking. Fine art students are analyzing, evaluating, and creating every twenty-four hour period. High gild thinking is naturally present in art classes.

As art educators, it is important to articulate why our class is important. We all know the value of art for our students. We need to communicate this value to our stakeholders.

We do not need to justify art in relation to other disciplines; art class has its own qualities, and we need to share why those qualities are so valuable.

How do y'all communicate the value of art education to your customs?

What other arguments for art education did nosotros miss?

Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional person education contributors and do not necessarily correspond the position of the Art of Instruction Academy (AOEU) or its bookish offerings. Contributors utilise terms in the way they are most often talked almost in the telescopic of their educational experiences.

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Source: https://theartofeducation.edu/2016/12/23/better-argument-art-education/

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