Art

Arts Education includes four separate and distinct disciplines dance, music, theatre arts and visual arts - each with its own body of knowledge and skills. The intent of the National Standards for Arts Education along with the standard courses of study in dance, music, theatre arts and visual arts is that a comprehensive understanding of one or more of the arts be accomplished by each student throughout the K-12 program. Arts education benefits both student and society. Involving the whole child in the arts gradually teaches many types of literacy while developing intuition, sensitivity, reasoning, imagination, and dexterity. Arts education helps students perceive and think in new ways. The arts also help provide and extend meaning (NCSCS, 2000). Learning in the arts nurtures active engagement, disciplined and sustained attention, persistence, and risk-taking. Arts education also increases attendance and educational aspirations as mentioned from the article of Helga Fasciano.

Unfortunately, nowadays, some disregard the importance of art education. Several studies conducted worldwide to prove the significance of art education. When two researchers published a study a few years ago concluding that arts classes do not improve students  overall academic performance, the backlash was bitter. Some scholars argued that the 2000 study s authors, Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland of Project Zero, an arts-education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education had failed to mention some beneficial effects of arts classes that their research had revealed. Others cited findings that reached the opposite conclusion, indicating that students who take high-quality art classes indeed do better in other courses. Some even accused the authors of devaluing arts education and the arts in general.

Nevertheless, art education is important in every institution. It helps us reconnect from our past to nurture our future.