The Importance of Art Education

Daniel Carman
Tasche Bryant
Senior Seminar
May 11, 2015

Introduction:

As a young child, Georges Pierre Seurat was not in a very good financial place.
He and his family were struggling, quite a bit. He started attending school and became a
popular artist there. Quickly he enrolled at Ecole des Beaux , an incredible art school in
Paris. He was so good at what he did he soon went under the training of Henri
Lehmann. He was so talented that he influenced the great Vincent van Gogh, Paul
Signac, and has a musical created in dedication to him name Sunday at the park with
George(Georges Pierre Seurat).
Another artist, Georgia Okeeffe, went and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago
in the early 1900s, becoming such a great artist she has a museum named after her in
Santa Fe New Mexico(Georgia Okeeffe).
Lastly Pierre-Auguste Renoir, as a youngling, worked as a porcelain painter, on
his free time he went and took a free drawing art class as a city sponsored school by
Sculptor Louis Denis Calbuette(Pierre-Auguste Renoir). At 19 he started studying at
the Louvre, a famous, and amazing museum that holds the Mona Lisa, as well as the
Venus de Milo. Entering into Ecole des Beaux Arts, student of Charles Gleyre (a swiss
artist) he befriended three artist, Frederic Bazille, Claude Monet, and Alfred Sisley
creating a huge impression leading to his fame(Pierre-Auguste Renoir).
All these artists, have come from poverty. But by creating such amazing art and
being educated by top known artists, it led them to change and become amazing artists.
Art education led these three to not just their fame, but it led each and every one of
these artist to find out their identities. Art changes the people for the good and we know
them now because of their art. Even though art is an available course for students
education people tend to look down on it as if it is not needed. Art clearly helped these

people, so why not give the chance to children and teens now a days to make them
succeed in what they want to do. Art education is important for everyone to learn, and it
should be available at all times, in all schools.

Background:
Art education refers to learning, instruction and programming based upon the
visual and tangible arts. Art education includes performing arts like dance, music,
theater, and visual arts like drawing, painting, sculpture, and design works. Design
works include design in jewelry, pottery, weaving and fabrics (Legal Definitions Legal
Terms Dictionary). In the past, art education was a fixture in schools.
Art education is currently being cut back from education in many areas in
America. In the past, art was one of the electives that was needed for school. Although
art was just an elective needed for school, school districts still decided to cut these
programs. First off, Californias West Contra Costa School District offers only 60% of
time to visual arts and band classes, while drama, dance, piano, keyboarding,
photography, and T.V. classes are cut entirely (Holcomb). Unfortunately art education
classes are being cut due to lack of funding, an increased focus on test results, and the
view of art education as a non-academic course.
To add on to art education being cut, Fine arts are traditionally viewed as
affective and expressive and not academic (Holcomb). This means that the arts arent
being viewed as an educational course, claiming that art is only about the feelings
towards art and how they show these feeling through their art. The school districts think
that all academic courses are important and arent looking into the academics in art.

Another reason art education is being cut is because the schools are not taking in
enough revenue to help them work through their financial problems.
Due to lack of funding, for example Chicago, Laid off over 1,000 teachers, over
105 of those 1,581 teachers laid off taught in Arts or Music (Fang). In addition The
Chicago Teachers Union is alleging that the city under-reported the number of layoffs
and estimates that these numbers are higher: It says 1,715 total teachers were laid off,
with 159 in the art or music departments (Fang). Although this is only 10 percent of the
teachers being laid off, traditionally there are less art teachers employed and they may
be laid off at a higher percentage.
Furthermore general funding has been a problem for many communities
throughout the country. Due to the communities not taking in enough money to support
the schools. Five key states budget cuts to K-12 public education: Arizona, Florida,
North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania (Hickey). This explains that courses have been
terminated for Kindergarten through 12th grade students in the five states given. Thus,
teachers may lose their jobs and students interest in classes could also be lost. In
Pennsylvania: In Chester Upland, 40 percent of the teachers were eliminated, with class
sizes rising from 21 to 30 in elementary schools and to 35 in high schools. And in York,
art, music and physical education classes were eliminated in elementary schools
(Hickey). Due to York cutting these extracurricular courses it causes loss of interest,
attention, and can cause behavioral problems. Art courses may be extracurricular
courses but they are also academic. Art teaches different ways of expression and
expresses cognitive skills. Without art courses, students will not have the same
experiences as others. Art should be available for all students, anywhere and

everywhere, because without art, students would not have different unique talents to
make the world a better place.
Point 1 How SAT Scores are enhanced from taking art
There is more of an emphasis on core classes because testing has become so
important to school even though research shows that your brains function has a lot to
do with learning due to the cognition of your brain. Art uses all quadrants of the brain,
and actually the only discipline that does this is the arts (Vaughn). Each quadrant has
different characteristics. The frontal left is the problem solver and mathematical part of
the brain. The frontal right is the imaginative side as well as the synthesizing part. Also
the basal left is the planning, and conservative section of the brain. Lastly the basal
right shows expression as well as how to be a leader and a teacher (Vaughn). These
quadrants are all needed for everyday life. Even if just focused on school courses, they
are needed to travel through education.
One problem is art is overlooked and shouldnt be. Art is not really noticed due to
school districts focusing on just academic courses. These courses are brought to
attention because SAT scores are crucial to high schools and colleges. The importance
is reflected because each academic course is required to graduate. Some elective
classes are overlooked because various school departments see them as not important.
Although districts overlook these courses, they art still important due to what they teach.
For example art teaches different ways to express yourself and also improves test
scores. It has been said that, There are academic and social skills that no other
discipline develops to the extent art does(Vaughn). Art actually teaches various life
skills like critical and creative thinking, communication, problem solving, sequential

learning, informed judgment, creativity, analysis, memory, emotional development, logic,

reading comprehension and the ability to think in metaphors and abstract
terms.(Yaremich) Due to art teaching these different skills, it can help people with
everyday problems, or even if they are just making conversation with someone.
SAT Scores:
What many people dont realize is math, writing, and reading skills are improved
drastically through art. All of these skills further aid students in their ability to assess,
focus and apply their liberal arts knowledge to the SATs (Vaughn). Art increases math
and reading test scores as well as SAT scores. Through various courses of art, like
music lessons, and painting, art creates a memorization technique in the human brain.
Ultimately, Todays students can similarly leverage the skills they learn through the arts
to increase their SAT scores (Yaremich). From this, due to art helping with
memorization, it teaches students how to memorize different subjects or hard question
for their future.
SAT scores are very important, most colleges require SAT scores submitted. So
people need to do everything possible to get their scores high. Therefore, due to the
arts raising SAT and ACT scores, scholars should take advantage of these courses.
Data shows arts and music courses for four years scored higher on the SAT writing,
math and reading sections compared to scores from before (Yaremich). If arts are such
a benefitting program, and raise these important scores up tremendously then people
should exercise their brain and make sure the schools provide these courses. In
addition, student development tend to be dramatically higher if students are involved
with arts, compared to other students that are not involved at all. The students who do

take these art courses dont just have a higher development. It actually increases their
ability to learn and retain more quickly.

Increased Knowledge:
Increased knowledge is one thing schools focus on for their scholars. The
specifics of how art increases scores based on research, 9/10 students have raised
their SAT scores (Fang). Art doesnt just increase scores, it increases academic skill
levels. Data shows arts and music courses for four years scored higher on each SAT
writing, math and reading sections compared to before (Yaremich). Art helps different
techniques in academic classes and prove the case that scores will rise after taking
these courses. Students with 0,1,2,3 years of art are significantly lower than scores from
students with four or more years experience (Vaughn). This is not good for students who
lack these classes because it is important for their growth and for their education.
Additionally art increases scores in SATs and ACTs. Scores that have increased
dramatically are evidence that art experience raises test scores sharply from zero to
four years (Vaughn). Scores rise up dramatically from zero to three years to four years
of art experience for verbal math and reading SAT scores (Vaughn). Verbal and Math
scores of students taking any form of art irrespective of number years, are significantly
than for students who take no art (Vaughn). In this evidence, each point explains how
art is needed for student growth. Their knowledge increases as well as memory to help
with testing. Art should be available for students because it changes them into stronger
smarter people.

Point 2. Social Skills improve through art

Another important reason to keep arts in schools is they help develop social skills
for economically and educationally disadvantaged youth.Usually the disadvantaged
youth are depressed, stressed or just going through rough times. Art therapy helps with
these different scenarios. Art therapy is particularly appropriate for children on the
autism spectrum because they are often visual concrete thinkers (Epp). Art can help
with various situations of disadvantaged youth. Art helps children who grow up in a not
so structured economy, or children who are mentally, physically, or emotionally disabled.
Due to art helping with disabilities it helps with the willingness of improvement. By
participating in different types of arts, it can help break down ideas and spread out
different techniques of learning.
Art can develop different positive characteristics for people and may increase
willingness for children to participate art is an activity that they find acceptable (Epp).
Involvement in the arts fosters the growth of key cognitive skills (Brown et al.). This
introduces skills for the disadvantaged youth and shows them what to do and how to
become better people.Also art forces children with autism to be less literal and
concrete in self-expression, and it offers a nonthreatening way to deal with rejection
(Epp). The significance of this shows that there are many different ways to help cope
with problems. One way to help cope is through the arts.

Art helps with anger:

Although art helps students with autism, depression, stress disorder and anger, it
also helps with observational skills that help learn other skills. One art form that has
been known for this is the art of dance. Art replaces the need for tantrums or acting-out
behaviors because it offers a more acceptable means of discharging aggression and

enables the child to self-soothe (Epp). Learning to dance by effective observation is

closely related to the learning by physical practice, both in the level of achievement and
also the neural substrates that support the organization of complex actions.

Art Helps Cognitive Skills:

Cognitive skills are needed for everyday life, these skills help people learn, talk,
show expression and it helps with the ability to stay focused. Effective observational
learning may transfer to other cognitive skills (Brown et al.). Art causes the children to
be able to intellectually and emotionally integrate their personal experiences by
reviewing and reflecting on the art that their own creativity has mirrored for them (Epp).
For example, when someone is dancing or singing, they feel the emotions in the music
or steps, they spark memories and it affects the brain, triggering their emotions.
Art can be explored in various forms, including drama and music. The concrete,
visual characteristics of art help children, who often experience anxiety in social
situations, to relax and enjoy themselves while they are learning social skills in the
carefully controlled environment of the therapeutic group setting (Epp). This
demonstrates that art helps with social skills and helps children become more
comfortable in the environment they are in.
Research shows that a strong causal link exists between learning how to play
music and the development of spatial-temporal reasoning skills, which can play an
important role in mathematics and science education(Brown et al.). Art initially helps
with all terms of stress, art therapy need not be restricted to comic strips. Art can be
explored in many forms, including drama and music. Some students talked about their
classroom jobs. One second grader named doing his math homework as an example of

being responsible (Ramsey). Fourth graders talked about when they had lost their selfcontrol and how they could better manage their feelings. One student wrote a poem that
described how he would scream and slam the door in anger. They explained the YinYang for balance of control. (Ramsey). Through creating a mural, the schools
community expressed its values, and amplify their meaning through art (Ramsey). Also,
in addition to that, participation in the arts contributes to social development and
academic advantage, communication skills, and visualization training that leads to
reading readiness. (Brown et al.). Thus, Only 21.5 percent of recent four-year college
graduated were assessed as excellent in these skill sets; more than half of high-school
graduates were rated deficient. (Brown et al.)
Art doesnt just help with spatial memorization though.The arts help create an
inclusive community where students and more motivated to contribute positively (Brown
et al.). Learning to make music strengthens spatial-reasoning abilities. Research shows
that a strong causal link exists between learning how to play music and the
development of spatial-temporal reasoning skills. Due to art creating such an involving
role with helping with cognition, The arts experiences can be instrumental in resolving
conflicts, deterring problems with attendance and disruptive behavior, and building selfrespect, self-efficacy, resilience, empathy, collaborative skills, and other characteristics
and capacities that are linked to high school student achievement. (Brown et al.) All this
becomes possible due to making art fun, shows students how art relates to everyday
life. Art teaches all this through various techniques. Art teaches memory, its teaches
how to express yourself, it even shows how to behave because of it calming people.

These creations like combining the arts with other ways of knowing to explore
important themes that cut across the boundaries of disciplines(Brown et al.). But due to
exposure and participation in the arts contributes to social development and academic
advantage, communication skills, and visualization training that leads to reading
readiness. (Brown et al.) If art wasnt such a hands on task, art wouldnt help as much
as people think.

Point 3: Art helps with visual-spatial abilities

Arts help with visual-spatial abilities, reflection, self criticism, and how to learn
from mistakes. Art helps analyze through various ways. Art can translate to others on
what we see. Also, writing is a type of art (Malchiod). Those skills are useful, and can
save lives. For example, if doctors didnt have art, they wouldnt be able to memorize or
remember how to complete a surgery. They use pictures words and sometimes songs to
remember the steps to complete the surgery and to keep people safe. Doctors, officers,
nurses as well as investigators use art every day to help them save lives. Doctors and
Nurses use visual acuity to help with surgeries as well as appointments(Malchiod).
Law Enforcement Officers use tools like communicative skills and visual skills that are
crucial and critical to help with investigations, emergencies and immediate help. Art
helps with description which also helps these workers in case of emergencies when a
crime happens (Malchiod). Visual and communicative art helps study thoroughly and
observe, analyze, articulate them succinctly and formulate questions to address the
seeming consistencies. (Malchiod). These workers use these skills everyday not just to
be better people, but it helps them be more creative, more intelligent and have greater
cognitive skills (Alexandra Shires Golon).

Counter Argument:
Some will say that art education is not important and Art courses cost to much
money or Art supplies are a hassle to pay for, or even art is just not needed for
students education. They would say art doesnt help with academics, it just causes
students to be off task, or its just a reason to not complete their other work. As well
Arts teachers take up valuable space on the salaries/benefits table in the budget
(Riley). This explains that it is not cheap for even the teachers never mind the art
supplies. Also, by including the arts, we are taking away from learning in statemandated tested areas (Riley). This states that art doesnt help with state test at all.
What these people often forget or miss is that, art may not be as important as basic
math or writing, but art helps teach different ways to express these academic courses.
Art may not be cheap but, art teachers are some of the only people in a school to
access a students innate talents and bring them to their full potential as human beings.
Priceless (Riley). Therefore art is priceless. To add on, by investing in the arts,
students are able to problem-solve, think critically, analyze, synthesize, and perform in
all areas, including those by state-mandated tests (Riley). State mandated test scores
are increased due to the skills art teaches. By art helping with focus, brain function and
learning techniques/skills, art courses are very important for students and for their
education.

Conclusion:
Although art is overlooked by many people, art shows students as well as adults
different skills to perform in everyday life. Art helps teach others how to live a more
successful life but also gives people bigger and better opportunities. For example, If a
student took an art course as a junior or seniorior it would help them with SAT scores. It
would help with these scores because art creates a way to help with memorization. Art
is important but not just for children but for everyone. If there was not art in this world it
could cause economic downfalls, like extreme loss of jobs, causing other world
problems like homelessness, depression, and may cause loss of all entertainment. If
there was not art, it would just be a black and white world meaning there would be no
thinking outside of the box.

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