The Practical Values of Art Education

CEBU, Philippines - "The arts is a visualization of a people's history and uniqueness, a reflection of their creativity and accomplishments, and a visible expression of their distinct way of thinking, communicating, reasoning, and worshiping." This idea prompts the increased weight placed on the arts in the government's K-to-12 school program. It is believed that the spatial, intrapersonal, linguistic and kinesthetic intelligences for the arts develop a distinct way of seeing, thinking, communicating, and creating in a person.

While art education used to be regarded as a luxury, simple creative activities have since been found to be some of the building blocks of child development. For example, child-development experts say that learning to create and appreciate visual aesthetics may be more important than ever to the development of the next generation of children as they grow up.

Grace Hwang Lynch, writing at www.pbs.org, lists several developmental benefits small children can gain from art training. And such training can even begin at home.

Motor Skills. Many of the motions involved in making art, such as holding a paintbrush or scribbling with a crayon, are essential to the growth of fine motor skills in young children. According to the National Institutes of Health, developmental milestones around age three should include drawing a circle and beginning to use safety scissors. Around age four, children may be able to draw a square and begin cutting straight lines with scissors. Many preschool programs emphasize the use of scissors because it develops the dexterity children will need for writing.

Language Development. For very young children, making art - or just talking about it - provides opportunities to learn words for colors, shapes and actions. When toddlers are as young as a year old, parents can do simple activities such as crumpling up paper and calling it a "ball." By elementary school, students can use descriptive words to discuss their own creations or to talk about what feelings are elicited when they see different styles of artwork.

Decision Making. A group of arts advocates reports that art education strengthens problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. The experience of making decisions and choices in the course of creating art carries over into other aspects of life. As the kids explore, and think and experiment and try new ideas, their creativity has a chance to blossom, according to MaryAnn Kohl, an arts educator and author of numerous books about children's art education.

Visual Learning. Drawing, sculpting with clay and threading beads on a string all develop visual-spatial skills, which are more important than ever. Even toddlers know how to operate a smart phone or tablet, which means that even before they can read, kids are taking in visual information. This information consists of cues from pictures or three-dimensional objects from digital media, books and television.

Children today learn a lot more from graphic sources, observes Dr. Kerry Freedman, Head of Art and Design Education at a university in the US. Children, Dr. Freedman says, need to know more about the world than just what they can learn through text and numbers. He points out that art education teaches students how to interpret, criticize, and use visual information, and how to make choices based on it. Knowledge about the visual arts, such as graphic symbolism, is especially important in helping kids become smart consumers and navigate a world filled with marketing logos.

Inventiveness. When kids are encouraged to express themselves and take risks in creating art, they develop a sense of innovation that will be important in their adult lives. "The kind of people society needs to make it move forward are thinking, inventive people who seek new ways and improvements, not people who can only follow directions," says Kohl. "Art is a way to encourage the process and the experience of thinking and making things better!"

Cultural Awareness. As we live in an increasingly diverse society, the images of different groups in the media may also present mixed messages. "If a child is playing with a toy that suggests a racist or sexist meaning, part of that meaning develops because of the aesthetics of the toy - the color, shape, texture of the hair," says Freedman. Teaching children to recognize the choices an artist or designer makes in portraying a subject helps kids understand the concept that what they see may be someone's interpretation of reality.

Improved Academic Performance. Studies show that there is a correlation between art and other achievements. Young people who participate regularly in the arts (three hours a day on three days each week through one full year) are reportedly four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to participate in a math and science fair or to win an award for writing an essay or poem than children who do not participate.

Sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz is quoted by writer Fran Smith at www.edutopia.org as saying: "Art does not solve problems, but makes us aware of their existence." Arts education, on the other hand, does solve problems, Smith points out. Years of research show that art is closely linked to almost everything that parents say they want for their children and demand from the school system: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity.

It may be true that art education does not make life easy - it makes life beautiful.  (FREEMAN)