From “The American Heritage” dictionary art defined as “Creative or imaginative activity, esp. the expressive arrangement of elements within a medium. Works, such as paintings or poetry, resulting…” Art does not just give birth to paintings and poetry; it also, develops focusing skills, problem-solving skills, originality, and character: a teaching tool needed in schools. It develops in schools educational values, a remedy for behavioral problems, and how can funding for art classed be maintain?
Children who take art classes in elementary school develop good educational values. From an internet article title “A Successful Program” by “Marvin Bartel, Ed.D.” it states strong reasons for why art is such an important thing in school. Children learn from art how to observer and focus on how to draw a particular object before them. From the article “A Successful Program,” it mentions “[children] learn to be careful observers by regularly drawing from observation….They learn to concentrate and to focus.” Art teaches good life skills, which kids need to learn at a young age: planning, preparing, and good decision-making. Math, history, and vocabulary are learning byproducts of art. Children learn about different kinds of art from the past/present. They learn about math when they learn how to analyze different art forms and learning cause and effects when you combine elements together. In art children vocabulary is build up because of the new art terms they learn and along with that, children develop independent studying skills from them working on there on art projects alone.
Art is a remedy for behavioral problem children in schools. It gives these kids a new way to express themselves; instead, of them expressing there issues out on other students physically. It can help them to relax, focus on something other than there problems and it becomes a way to project there feelings on paper. A friend of mines was a problem kid, we went to Warren Easton high school, we were in the tenth grade, and his name was Josh. Before he got into an art class, he was not focus on his schoolwork because he had many problems at his home. Therefore, he decided to take an art class, thinking that it would help him get his mind off his family issues. After a couple of months in the class, I started to see a change in him. He seem more focus on his schoolwork and he was not as depress as he was before he took art.
What could, be done to maintain the funding for art classes in schools? More grants just for art programs only, need to be made out for schools. They can increase the tax on cigarettes and alcohol and use that extra revenue to go to the art programs in schools. Rich entertainers should donate money to schools’ art programs. Especially music entertainers, actors, and comedians, they can donate a dollar every time somebody buys there CDs, movies, books, and clothes. If anybody should know how important art is to schools, they should know because that is how they came to be what there are today.
Art is a need in the education system; especially, if this country want the next generation to be better than the present one. Ending with a quote form “Raphael Soyer” he says, “From all that I have seen I am more than ever convinced that art must communicate, it must represent, it must deserve and express people, their lives and times.”
