by Chloé Langley

As a young person educated in a public school environment where art permeated every aspect of the curriculum, I have often wondered what affect this emersion in the arts had on my academic learning experience. The effect on my craft is clear. But did this course of study improve my ability to learn in other fields? Did I do well academically because I would have done well in any environment or did my early and continued studies in the arts give me tools that allowed me to be academically successful? Do I perceive benefit solely because my chosen field is in the arts? Is an education that includes a rich tradition in the arts of benefit only to students that wish to pursue an artistic career? Intuitively I know that the arts made me a better student. I see myself using creative thinking skills every day. “The human brain is the most complex system on earth, yet it is too often used…as a simple device for storage and retrieval of information” (Dickinson). Dogs can be taught to ring bells and rats to navigate mazes but memorization does not make them thinking animals.

Follow up:

It only gives them the appearance of intelligence. The human brain is more than a fancy computer and it must be nourished for magnificent ideas to come into being. “The arts provide the means for the human brain to function at its highest capacities” (Dickinson). I want to argue for the value of a strong education in the arts for all students and am curious to know what educational experts have to say and if their research supports my thesis.

The core of the problem is that in many school systems the arts are perceived as being unimportant. “In American schools, the arts receive about two hours of instructional time per week at the elementary level and are generally not required…at the secondary level” (Eisner 1992 592). Much of the resistance to inclusion of the arts in school curriculums is based on the modern philosophy that “the individualism, secularism, and techno rationalism…fostered by science conspicuously” (Dissanayake 2) fails to prove that the arts are of value in an increasingly scientific world. Many educators believe that science, reason, and the quantifiable are all that is important. This cannot be true though for if the arts are of no value to human society then with all the other myriad activities early man needed to accomplish for survival the arts would never have developed. It would have been a waste of energy. Ellen Dissanayake, Affiliate Professor of Music at the University of Washington, “approaches philosophical aesthetics through evolutionary ethnology. She advocates what she calls 'species-centrism' in aesthetics, preferring to see art against a backdrop of four million years of human evolution” (Ellen Dissanayake). It is her belief that “art is a behavior” (33) that evolved as an important and necessary human trait. “In every human society of which we know…at least some form of art is displayed and…highly regarded and willingly engaged in” (Dissanayake 34). Yet why would so much energy be invested in a frivolous activity with no apparent benefit to the community? The answer is that the arts are so important to the essence of humanity that the need for art evolved as a necessary aspect of what makes us human. If it is in our nature to pursue art then art must be of benefit to our continued existence. I suggest that the ability to create art is what allows us to be creative problem solvers.

Arguments for arts in education have been around for over a hundred years. Horace Mann in the late 19th century “demanded that visual arts and music be taught in the common schools in Massachusetts as…an enhancement to learning” (Gullatt 13). In 1934, John Dewey noted the relationship between arts instruction and general perception (Gullatt 13). It was his belief that the ability to find connections during the inquiry process was transformative and allowed art to function as experience (Goldblatt 17). These early pioneers helped to make arts education a mainstay of public education during the 20th century. All children participated in “standard” art classes such as visual art, music, dance, and drama. Even the shop and home economics classes so common during the last century were a type of creative arts curriculum. Students who received this rich and varied education went on to put men on the moon, computers in every home, and a wealth of information at our fingertips. They became civil rights activists, ended the cold war, and increased life expectancy by thirty years. Every student who receives the benefit of a strong arts background will not go on to become the next Yo Yo Ma, Andy Warhol or Mikhail Barishnikov for each child is born with different talents and interests. Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University proposed the theory of Multiple Intelligences in 1983. His theory examines “what smart means” (Fowler 39) and suggests that intelligence cannot be tied solely to verbal and mathematical skills (Fowler 39). When the artistic intelligences are educated, awareness is nurtured (Fowler 40). It is this awareness that allows our children to examine and understand the world around them both critically and artistically; to, as Eric Jensen¹ believes, become a catalyst to improve and instigate other learning (qtd. in D’Agrosa).

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¹Eric Jensen, the author of Arts with the Brain in Mind, is neither an arts educator nor an artist, but a researcher. Jensen has compiled and reviewed research studies on the arts, the brain, and learning, which has convinced him that the arts are vital to educating our children and should be taught every day in our schools (Harvard Educational Review).

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