Guzman 1
Vincent A. Guzman
Professor Corner
UNIV 111
3 May 2017
Arts Necessity
While playing Mozart or Debussy for your child in the womb may not make them turn out to be geniuses, according to numerous studies, a high school student who can play Mozart or Debussy may be closer to that goal. Research conducted by The National Task Force on the Arts in Education(NTFAE) on the 2015 SAT scores shows that, students who had enrolled in four years of arts courses in high school scored an average of 92 points higher than students without arts education courses like music, dance, drama, or visual arts (Arts at the Core). Arts education is valuable because it allows students to develop a mastery of critical thought preparing them for the future, develops abstract reasoning skills, enhances academic performance through transfer learning, and engages the community through outreach especially in low-income or poverty stricken areas.
Arts Education has many faces as it encompasses a wide variety of different denominations. In an average high school setting, the most commonly taught arts courses are music, theater, and visual arts. Music programs are often divided into wind band, chorus, and orchestra. Theater, while fairly encompassing, often is divided in two as classical performance and musical theater. The visual arts are seen usually divided into medium based courses such as painting, drawing, or sculpture. Apart from these, there are a multitude of other arts education courses that fewer high schools offer like global music, film studies, ballet, show choir, jazz, and set design to name a few. While these are valid and useful arts courses, the main focus of this paper will be focusing on the promulgation of understanding and care for the main portions of arts education especially at the high school level wherein its value is most apparent. As mentioned before, the average public high school has an abundance of arts education courses. However, there is an exceedingly large number that do not have or are currently defunding their arts programs. Defunding is often due to ignorance as many school officials "are unaware of the value of arts education," so they are quick to cut the programs in the face of budget cuts (Henry 6d). The active defunding of arts programs is problematic as it strips students of their ability to grow in more than just the core curriculum's direction. The value of arts programs is often overshadowed and replaced the by the mass purchase of standardized tests which have the ability to gain a school status at the cost of the individual learning experience. In some cases, there is not enough money within the school system to even afford to finance arts education. Colleges and Universities often search for well-rounded students and arts education on an application makes a student much more desirable to admissions. In a letter of response to a 2006 USA TODAY article covering twenty of the most outstanding high school students in the United States, Warrick L. Carter, president of Columbia College, Chicago, points out that twelve of the twenty students had listed music or arts instruction as part of their high school experience (12a). Carter's directness in presenting this information highlights the stance of colleges and universities on the appeal of arts education in applicants. If higher education institutions see arts education as an appealing feature on an application it goes to signify that students with arts education add something or are better suited to a higher level of education. This heightened level of success post-high school is most likely attributed to the multitude psychological, emotional, and physical benefits reaped from education in the arts. As high school students are educated in an increasingly controlled environment, "the concern of some researchers and practitioners is that 'critical thinking' cannot be taught in isolation," but arts education allows the expansion of critical thought to a much broader artistic view (Melnick 156). The academic competitive edge that students in the arts gain due to their increase in critical thought and reasoning is extremely significant. At 92 points above non-arts tester’s average SAT score of 985 in 2015, the average four-year arts student scored a 1077-point average, placing them 77 points above the national center of curve at 1000 points. The major benefits of the critical thinking skills gained in arts education include increased academic achievement, higher levels of abstract reasoning, and broader skill sets add to the desirability.
The development of abstract reasoning through arts education is fundamental in success as it allows one to process information outside of a functionally fixed state. Arts courses build the cognitive aspects of sensory perception, students must learn to "select, generalize, and abstract aspects of the objects received by the mind." (Melnick 155). In training this skill, students enhance their ability to find solutions by eliminating functional fixedness and adapting objects to fit into alternative schemas. Students' increased adaptability allows them to find alternative routes to solutions. This skill makes students excellent improvisors and test takers as they can strategize and adapt testing methods to work in their best interest. Brain plasticity is able to be conditioned to remain even after the act of musical creation has ceased, this means the brain becomes more reactive and is able to fire synapses at a greater rate and quantity which yields faster problem solving and reasoning abilities (Miranda 28). The success and academic achievement made attainable by arts education is not just learning an art form, but rather changing the internal scaffolding and chemistry of the brain. Abstraction and plasticity are directly related as abstraction requires greater amounts of brain plasticity than available in most high school students not enrolled in the arts.
Transfer learning, or the application of learned material outside of its original context, allows arts students to engage in creative strategies and problem solving within the lenses of the standard core curriculum. Transfer learning can be described as "the interaction of and the translation between the arts and language and mathematics as symbol systems," the transfer portion refers to "the mediating between different domains of knowledge" to expand and strengthen preexisting neurological connections (Aprill 26). The expansion of neurological pathways allows one to access stored information at a much more rapid pace; facilitating speedy problem solving based on art's neurological pathways in conjunction with the standard core subjects. Combining the arts and core neurological passages i.e. those involving math, science, history, and literature allows students to problem solve in a fashion not previously considered.
Arts education can be used to increase student and community engagement in low-income areas where academics and testing may be suffering. These are called "Underserved Areas" and they are often either low-income or associated with an ethnic or racial minority where a close relationship between income and academics exists (Huxold). "Underserved areas" often are the areas where the arts would thrive. Historically, low income areas where poverty is present and academics are not at the forefront of school progress experience rapid and radical reformation when introduced to arts education. Examples of this rapid type of reformation in history are The Harlem Renaissance, The New Orleans Jazz movement, and the Motown age of Detroit. In a report by the NTFAE, it is stated that underserved areas can begin to make strides towards the introduction of arts programs through The National Endowment for the Arts in conjunction with The Arts Education Partnership, “a coalition of more than 100 national education, arts, philanthropic and government organizations” (Arts at the Core 13). The aim of The Arts Education Partnership is to assist in the reinstitution of arts programs and to research, finance, and spread new arts education information. This financial aid and arts education initiatives has an active role in the revitalization of the underserved communities.
Many arguments countering the necessity of arts education have arisen in the past, and one that still may sit on the forefront of many minds is the thought that the implication of such arts programs would be too financially taxing on a school system. The financial burden is far outweighed by the positive effects of arts in the schools. The introduction of an arts program would be able to return lost revenue in allocation of funding after students’ scores increase meriting greater board funding. The necessity of arts programs in underserved areas is especially necessary as they profit most from the integration of the programs. Integration of arts programs not only enhance an underserved school’s scores and student motivation, but also a sense of community amongst both students and educators helping to reform a school (Huxold 7). As far as the argument on arts classes just being a room full of kids and a jar of paint, the progression of students’ cognitive mapping, processing level escalation, and abstract reasoning ability speaks the class’s necessity and legitimacy (Melnick).
The ability to participate in arts education programs and courses in high schools is an immense gift to the development of students. Arts education allows students to develop a mastery of critical thought and a broader artistic problem solving view. Participation in the arts develops abstract reasoning skills and enables students to process information in a fluid state while increasing brain plasticity. The interaction of the arts and understanding of core information enhances academic performance with transfer learning applications. A problem for many underserved schools is engagement, but with the introduction of arts education both community and student engagement is strengthened.nda 28). l thought palso paramount in underserved areas in which the addition of arts education can 11111
Works Cited
Aprill, Arnold. "Toward a Finer Description of the Connection between Arts Education and Student Achievement." Arts Education Policy Review, vol. 102, no. 5, 2001, pp. 25-26, Academic Search Complete.
Arts at the Core. National Task Force on the Arts in Education, The College Board, 2009, Accessed 25 Apr. 2017.
Carter, Warrick L. "Arts a Fundamental Part of Education." USA Today, 25 May 2006, pp.12a, Academic Search Complete. Accessed 15 Apr. 2017.
Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development. Art Education Partnership, Department of Education; National Endowment for the Arts, 2002.
Goldberg, Merryl. Arts and Learning: An Integrated Approach to Teaching in Multicultural and Multilingual Settings. Longman, 1997.
Henry, Tamara. "Study: Arts Education Has Academic Effect." USA Today, 20 May 2002, pp. 6d, Academic Search Complete. Accessed 26 Apr. 2017.
Huxold, Dianna and Lara Lackey. “Arts integration as school reform: Exploring how teachers experience policy.” Arts Education Policy Review, vol. 117, no. 4, 2016, pp. 211-222, Academic Search Complete, doi: 10.1080/10632913.2016.1213120.
Melnick, Steven A., et al. "Cognition and Student Learning through the Arts." Arts Education Policy Review, vol. 112, no. 3, June 2011, pp. 154-162, Academic Search Complete, doi:10.1080/10632913.2011.566100.
Miranda, Janet Y. A Study of the Effect of School -Sponsored, Extra-Curricular Activities on High School Students' Cumulative Grade Point Average, SAT Score, ACT Score, and Core Curriculum Subject Grade Point Average. Dissertation, University of North Texas, 2001, Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Accessed 19 Apr. 2017.