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Maggie Hauser
Mr. Greg Jones
English 101- 103
3 April 2015

The Necessity of Fine Arts Education

Paul Ostergard, the vice president of the Citicorp company said "A broad
education in the arts helps give children a better understanding of their worldWe need
students who are culturally literate as well as math and science literate." Citicorp is a
branch of the Citibank Company. As Vice President, Mr. Ostergard looks for new
employees and in them he looks for well - rounded and educated adults who will be able
to contribute to his company and society in a positive and beneficial way. In todays
society, students not only need a classical education of math, science and other primary
subjects. They are also in need of an education which verses them in the arts, such as
music, theatre, and dance. The problem is, that students are not getting such an education.
Between budget cuts, unwillingness in school systems and lack of interest, students are
leaving school without and education that will help them be a more valued employee. For
this reason, fine arts are necessary in schools. They are needed so that students enter the
work force with the ability to overcome their competition and secure careers and
successful futures.

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When students come from a range of different backgrounds, there may not be an
equal chance for a level competitive field. Eric Cooper, founder of National Urban
Alliance for Effective Education believes that, "Arts education enables those children
from a financially challenged background to have a more level playing field with children
who have had those enrichment experiences,'' supporting again, the idea that having an
arts education can give students an employment advantage when they leave schools. The
unfortunate fact is though, that no matter how much the fine arts benefits students, they
are slowly pushed out of the curriculum as students get further into their education
because it is sometimes hard to see how they do benefit students in their education. When
students are young, the arts are used to help students learn basic skills, such as reading
and counting and are seen as a way for the students to unleash their creativity. But art is
all too frequently seen as simply "kid stuff." By fourth grade, most schools have reduced
the art experiences available to their students. By junior high, many schools have isolated
the arts from other learning projects by relegating them to special art periods held in
separate art rooms; others have set aside a specified hour with a visual arts or music
teacher who visits the classroom. (Sautter). The arts, by the time students reach high
school, become jus another pointless requirement, and not a subject which is beneficial to
the student and person they can become. Students are taught to see the arts as less
valuable as they become older, which is not true. As students age, the arts are becoming
more valuable because they help students within their primary subjects.
Mr. Oxtoby has four main points of why schools, such as Pomona University
where he is the President of the school, should include the fine arts within their

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curriculum. He begins with the impact on society that the arts has. He argues that whether
students are exposed to the arts or not can affect their future careers. A fine arts education
can give a student who has just finished school the upper hand when applying for a job
over someone who has not had the same experience. The second reason Oxtoby believes
that there should be an art in schools is because the arts help students push their
boundaries. The fine arts, theatre in particular, encourages students to bring themselves
out of their comfort zone in order to be successful in the craft. This can then transfer into
the way students participate in their non- art classes and in the world outside of schools,
developing them into outgoing and confident citizens. Practical learning is the third
reason. Learning through fine arts causes students to be brought out of the classroom, and
into the physical practicality of the arts. When participating in fine arts, you are behind
the canvas, at the ballet barre or on the stage where their creativity can grow and not
behind a desk or computer staring at a board where they must follow specific directions
and creativity is stifled. Mr. David Oxtobys fourth and final reason for advocating for
fine arts education is how the arts teaches and encourages student creativity. Students
spend years being told how to do things, how they must act and how they must learn.
When a student becomes a student of the arts, they are allowed to stretch the way they
learn, they are allowed to find new ways to do things and they are able to bring their
creativity to a new level that without the arts would not be unlocked. This in turn, helps
students become adults who can stretch their minds and develop new ideas to benefit
society.

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As schools adopt new standards which can help student success No Child Left
Behind (NCLB) reaffirms the arts as a core academic subject that all schools should
teach. It puts the arts on equal footing with the other designated core subjects: English,
reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and
government, economics, history and geography. (Rupert 6). As schools have begun to
rebuild their curriculum to fit Common Core standards, they have realized that arts need
to be at the same ranking as all other subjects because of the benefits that they hold for
students and learning. Common Core standards are being put into place in order to
reverse the issues which were not dealt with by NCLB. These standards give school
systems learning objectives that must be reached by students by the end of the school
year. There has also been research done to prove that the arts can help student success
rise. In a well-documented national study using a federal database of over 25,000 middle
and high school students, researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles
found students with high arts involvement performed better on standardized achievement
tests than students with low arts involvement. (Ruppert, 8). This research also proved
that these students who were involved in the fine arts said they were more involved in
their community and were not as bored in school. Other studies that have been done had
to do with the correlation between SAT scores and the amount of art education the test
takers had. Sandra Ruppert stated, Multiple independent studies have shown increased
years of enrollment in arts courses are positively correlated with higher SAT verbal and
math scores. High school students who take arts classes have higher math and verbal SAT
scores than students who take no arts classes. This further solidifies the large importance

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that arts play in student success by proving that the arts encourages higher test scores and
a positive outlook on subjects students could consider mundane.
Higher test scores are not the only things that arts education produces.
Researchers claim that intellectual benefits include the development of general thinking
skills and problem solving abilities and the development of different ways of making
meaning, both of which contribute to self- confidence, and even developing a more
complex neural network in the brain. Researchers also claim that there are links between
studies in the arts and achievement in mathematics and language. (Upitis 25). This again
can help prove the idea that an education in the arts can help students SAT and other
standardized test score increase. This occurs because the arts, music in particular can help
open the mind and can give students new ways to comprehend language and mathematics
when learning. When students are able to open their eyes to new ways of learning, they
are able to become more successful learners.
One of the biggest things that have stopped fine arts from being successful in
schools is lack of interest. It seems that the interest is more focused towards STEM
courses, English and history courses, and even in extra curricular activities, the focus is
geared towards athletics over the arts. This could be because the teachers in schools are
not concerned about the ways fine arts can benefit students. The push and emphasis in
most schools are not towards the arts. When students are not told that the arts can benefit
them, they will not be concerned with becoming involved in the arts. Students are
extremely impressionable, and teachers are very large influences in their lives. As

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teachers tell students, whether intentionally or not, that the arts do not concern them,
students begin to believe that. This then begins to decrease the interest in the arts. A way
to increase interest in the arts is to have teachers and adults in the schools who want the
arts to flourish. These people are more commonly known as fine arts advocators. They
are people who appreciate the arts and wish for the students in their community to gain
the opportunity to experience the arts. Advocators can donate the necessary things
needed, such as money, tools and time, to schools in order to help the programs.
Arts education has possible negatives though it is hard to find true evidence.
There are two main pieces of support for the negative side of the argument. It could be
seen that fine arts education, and the activities involved could distract students from the
courses they need in order earn their diplomas because only a certain number of these
courses are necessary for a diploma. The second reason fine arts education could be
negative in schools is the expenses that it would involve. Fine Arts and the groups, which
can develop from them, such as choirs, theatre departments and dance studios, can cost
more money than they can bring into the economy of schools. This issue connects to the
disinterest in fine arts once again. If there are not students who are willing to get involved
with the arts, there will not be students who would be willing to spend time enjoying the
arts to begin a currency flow in the school. These two arguments can be disproved
though. The second piece of support could be disproved by the fact that is the schools are
willing to put in effort, the fine arts programs could bring in large sums of revenue which
could benefit the schools economy greatly. The same two pieces of support against fine
arts education could be used as support against other subjects and athletics in schools.

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Athletics cost more money than many things in schools, and could just like the arts could,
distract students from what the school systems deem necessary courses because athletics
are not academic and are not necessary for students to earn diplomas, thus making the
points not relevant support against arts education.
A way for schools to give students the necessary education and still allow them to
experience the fine arts is to integrate the arts into the courses they find to be most
important. When students are exposed to the fine arts while they are learning important
skills and knowledge, they are more likely to comprehend and enjoy what they are
learning. The fine arts can also make it more possible for the students to relate to the
curriculum because it allows for them to use their creativity to focus on the important
information they are learning. This also allows the students to use more of their mental
capacity at once because they are not only using the part of the brain dedicated to
academics, but also the part which creativity is dedicated to.
Though in the past, the fine arts have been slowly pushed out of curriculum until
only the bare minimum is required, schools systems have begun to understand their
importance. Fine arts education is extremely valuable in schools. They create a way for
students to express who they are and how they feel. The arts also help students learn new
ways in which they can learn the curriculum they are required to know, which helps
schools increase their test scores. Schools can gain revenue from the arts if they put the
effort necessary into them. The biggest thing the arts can do thought that can benefit
students is to encourage them to be creative and to broaden their horizons in a way which

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help them become well- rounded adults who could enter the work force with the skills
and abilities to gain the employment they seek and the future they are driven to have.

Works Cited

Oxtoby, David W. "The Place Of The Arts In A Liberal Education." Liberal Education 98.2
(2012): 36-41. ERIC. Web. 3 Mar. 2015.

"Arts Education In Schools." Education Journal 218 (2014): 23. Academic Search Premier. Web.
7 Mar. 2015.

Miksza, Peter. "Arts Education Advocacy: The Relative Effects Of School-Level Influences On
Resources For Arts Education." Arts Education Policy Review 114.1 (2013): 25-32.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Mar. 2015.

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Ruppert, Sandra S., Washington, DC. National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and Partnership
Arts Education. "Critical Evidence: How The Arts Benefit Student Achievement."
National Assembly Of State Arts Agencies (2006): ERIC. Web. 5 Apr. 2015.

Upitis, Rena. "What is arts education good for?." EDUCATION CANADA-TORONTO- 43.4
(2003): 24-27.

Sautter, Craig R. "An arts education: School reform strategy." Phi Delta Kappan 75.6
(1994): 432.