And now a plug for our favorite cause. No, not ourselves, we’re talking about that highest of higher powers: The Arts!
by Carly Ginsbert
“Today, more and more policymakers think it is the arts, after all, that can motivate kids, engage them and help them develop 21st-century skills such as teamwork and innovative thinking — in sum, be the key to their salvation.” (The Washington Post)
There is a strange, isolating dichotomy between the arts and more “valued” academic subjects in the education system, and the more I think about it, the more baffling it is to me. The problem is that the arts are viewed as these independent entities that have no effect on the other subjects taught in school. The fact is: the arts improve student engagement in the classroom. Many researchers have found causal links between the arts and academic achievement. An Education Week article discusses how “arts education, when it is approached with the seriousness of purpose exemplified by the schools profiled in this report, can be a powerful medium through which students come to love learning, strive for excellence, and imagine a fulfilling, purposeful life.” The arts foster a sense of empathy and awareness that translate into every arena of life, and therefore, I find it critical that we make time for the arts in education.
by Adam Dachis