The
educational success of our children depends on the creation of a
society that is both competent and creative. That goal in turn,
depends on the ability to provide children with the tools to not only
understand that world, but to contribute to it and make their own
way. It is the arts that lay the foundation for future academic and
career success. A strong arts foundation builds creativity,
concentration, problem solving skills, self-efficacy, coordination,
attention to values and self-discipline.
The National Standards for Arts
Education is a statement of what every young American should know and
be able to do in four arts disciplines dance, music, theatre
and the visual arts. Their scope is grades K-12, and they focus on
both content and achievement. With the passage of the Goals 2000:
Educate America Act, the national goals were written into law, naming
the arts as a core academic subject as important to education
as English, mathematics, history, civics and government, geography,
science, and foreign language.
Knowing and practicing the arts
disciplines are fundamental in the healthy development of children's
minds and spirits. This is why, in a civilization, the arts are
inseparable from the very meaning of the term "education." We know
from long experience that no one can claim to be truly educated if
they lack basic knowledge and skills in the arts. There are many
reasons for this assertion:
The arts are worth
studying simply because of what they are. Their impact cannot be
denied. Throughout history, all of the arts have served to connect
our imaginations with the deepest questions of human existence: Who
am I? What must I do? Where am I going? Studying responses to those
questions through time and across cultures as well as
acquiring the tools and knowledge to create one's own responses
is essential not only to understanding life but to living it
fully.
The arts are used to achieve a
multitude of human purposes: to present issues and ideas, to teach or
persuade, to entertain, to decorate or please. Becoming literate in
the arts helps students understand and do these things better.
The arts are an integral part to
every person's daily life. Our personal, social, economic, and
cultural environments are shaped by the arts at every turn from the
design of the child's breakfast place mat, to the songs on the
commuter's car radio, to the family's nighttime TV drama, to the
teenager's Saturday dance, to the enduring influences of the
classics.
There is sufficient evidence that
the arts help students develop the attitudes, characteristics, and
intellectual skills required to participate effectively in today's
society and economy. The arts teach self-discipline, reinforce
self-esteem, and foster the thinking skills and creativity that are
valued in the workplace. They teach the importance of teamwork and
cooperation. They demonstrate the direct connection between study,
hard work, and high levels of achievement.
Arts education cultivates the
whole child by gradually building many kinds of literacy while
developing intuition, reasoning, imagination, and dexterity into
unique forms of expression and communication. This process requires
not only an active mind but a trained one. Students of the arts learn
to respect the often very different ways others have of thinking,
working, and expressing themselves. They learn to make decisions in
situations where there are no standard answers.
By studying the arts, students
stimulate their natural creativity and learn to develop it in order
to meet the needs of a complex and competitive society. And, as study
and competence in the arts reinforce one another, the joy of learning
becomes real, tangible, and powerful. This competence provides a firm
foundation for connecting arts-related concepts and facts across the
art forms, and from them, to the sciences and humanities. For
example, the intellectual methods of the arts are precisely those
used to transform scientific disciplines and discoveries into
everyday technology.
The visual arts have gotten a
tremendous boost from discoveries in neuroscience. The old model was
that left-brain thinking was the home of the necessary "higher order"
thinking skills, and right-brain activities were frills. That
paradigm is wrong. Current research tells us that much learning is
"both-brained." Musicians usually process melodies in their left
hemispheres. PET scans of problem solvers show activations in not
just the left frontal lobes but other areas used to store music, art,
and movement (Kearney 1996). Many of our greatest scientific
thinkers, like Einstein, have discussed the integration of
imagination into scientific pursuit. There has been worldwide success
of the neuropsychological art therapy model or NAT (Parente and
Anderson-Parente 1991, McGraw 1989). The use of art not just to draw
but to teach thinking and to build emotive expressiveness and memory
has been a remarkable demonstration of the brain's
plasticity.
The value of music as a component
of enriched learning has long been recognized in education. Many
schools offer music education in gifted programs. But what evidence
is there that daily music education ought to be universal, for every
K-12 student? Is it merely anecdotal or has the new research on the
brain caught up? The evidence is persuasive that (1) our brain may be
designed for music and the other areas of arts education and (2) a
music and arts education has positive, measurable, and lasting
academic and social benefits. In fact, considerable evidence suggests
a broad-based music and arts education should be required for every
student in the country.
Music, in itself, is not a
"right-brained frill." Robert Zatorre, neuropsychologist at the
Montreal Neurological Institute, says, "I have very little doubt that
when you're listening to a real piece of music, it is engaging the
entire brain." Reading music also engages both sides of the brain.
Once someone learns how to read, compose, or play music, their left
brain gets very involved.
Think of music as a tool for usage
in at least three possible categories: for arousal, as a carrier of
words, and as a primer for the brain. Arousal means the music either
increases or decreases the attention transmitters. An example of
"perk up" music could be the theme of "Rocky." Relaxing music might
include a waterfall or soft piano melodies. A study of 8th and 9th
graders reported in Principal magazine showed that students' reading
comprehension substantially improved with background music (Giles
1991). A second use of music is as a carrier. In this case, the
melody of the music acts as the vehicle for the words themselves. You
may have noticed how easily students pick up the words to new songs
it's the melody that helps them learn the words. There is a third,
and quite powerful use of music that can actually prime the brain's
neural pathways. Because neurons are constantly firing, what
distinguishes the "neural chatter" from clear thinking is the speed,
sequence, and strength of the connections. These variables constitute
a pattern of firing that can be triggered or "primed" by certain
pieces of music. As an example, have you ever put on a piece of music
to help you get a task done like cleaning the house or the
garage?
Music may, in fact, be critical
for later cognitive activities. Lamb and Gregory (1993) found high
correlation between pitch discrimination and reading skills. Mohanty
and Hejmadi (1992) found that musical dance training boosted scores
on the Torrance Test of Creativity. The neural firing patterns are
basically the same for music appreciation and abstract reasoning. The
well-publicized "Mozart Effect" study at The University of California
was the first to directly link listening to music as the single cause
of building intelligence.
Does evidence support the value of
singing? Music researcher M. Kalmak found that music has many
positive correlates better abstract conceptual thinking, stronger
motor development, coordination, creativity, and verbal abilities.
Singing is good stimulation for the brain. A survey of studies
suggest that music plays a significant role in enhancing a wide range
of academic and social skills. It activates procedural memory and
therefore, is learning that lasts (Dowling 1993). Music is a language
that can enhance the abilities of children who don't excel in the
expression of verbal thinking.
Three countries near the top in
ranking of math and science scores (Japan, Hungary, and the
Netherlands) all have intensive music and art training built into
their elementary curriculums. In Japan, every child is required to
play a musical instrument or be involved in choir, sculpture, and
design. Many studies suggest that students will boost academic
learning from games and so-called "play" activities (Silverman 1993).
The case for doing something physical every day is growing. Jenny
Seham of the National Dance Institute (NDI) in New York City says she
has observed for years the measurable and heartwarming academic and
social results of school children who study dance. Seham notes
positive changes in self-discipline, grades, and sense of purpose in
life that her students demonstrate.
Researchers know that certain
movements stimulate the inner ear, which helps physical balance,
motor coordination, and stabilization of images on the retina. David
Clarke at Ohio State University's College of Medicine has confirmed
the positive results of a particular type of activity spinning
(1980). Clarke's studies suggest that certain spinning activities led
to alertness, attention, and relaxation in the classroom.
Give students daily dance, music,
drama, and visual art instruction in which there is considerable
movement, and you might get a miracle. In Aiken, South Carolina,
Redcliffe Elementary test scores were among the lowest 25 percent in
the district. After a strong arts curriculum was added, the school
soared to the top 5 percent in six years. This Title I rural school
showed that a strong arts curriculum is at the creative core of
academic excellence not more discipline, higher standards, or the
three Rs (Kearney 1996). In Columbus, Ohio, Douglas Elementary a
predominately art-centered school, has achievement scores twenty
points above the district norms in five of six academic areas. Demand
for their program is strong; more than one hundred children are on
the school's "wait list." Does the arts emphasis make a difference?
"There's a definite link," says principal James Gardell
(1997).
By learning and practicing the
arts, the human brain actually rewires itself to make more and
stronger connections. The arts stimulate body awareness, creativity,
and sense of self. The child without access to the arts is at a
disadvantage from ways in which he or she can experience the
world.