Treasure the arts in education
With school back in full swing, students are again taking to the field or court for fall sports. They’re getting their cleats dirty, feeling the sweat drip down their brow as they round the final bend of the cross country race, or hearing the sound of the referee’s whistle as they toss the volleyball up to serve. But in another corner of the school property, very different sights and sounds might be seen and heard. Down one hallway, the voices of choir students warming up with a “mi-me-ma-mo-mu” can be heard. In the prop closet, a student shuffles her hands through a rack of fur coats, looking for the perfect costume for the fall play. In the band room, students expand their lungs in a collective breath to begin their piece.
Although they may not get as much of the limelight as sports do, the arts play a crucial role in young people’s education, helping them develop into more well-rounded, more empathetic and more disciplined human beings.
Here are 10 fast facts about the impact of arts education, courtesy of Americans for the Arts (AmericansfortheArts.org): 1. Students with high arts participation and low socioeconomic status have a 4 percent dropout rate — five times lower than their low socioeconomic status peers.
2. Students who take four years of arts and music classes score an average of over 150 points higher on the SAT than students who take only one-half year or less.
3. Low-income students are highly engaged in the arts are twice as likely to graduate college as their peers with no arts education.
4. A recent study showed that arts education experiences reduce the proportion of students in school receiving disciplinary infractions by 3.6 percent.
5. Ninety-one percent of Americans believe that the arts are vital to providing a well-rounded education.
6. Nineteen percent of superintendents used the Title IV well-rounded education provision of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to fund music and the arts. This is more than the percentages who used Title IV to fund physical education, foreign language and civics combined.
7. The arts are recognized as a core academic subject under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and, as of 2020, all 50 states plus the District of Columbia have adopted standards for learning in the arts.
8. Two-thirds of public-school teachers believed that the fine arts are among subjects getting crowded out of the school day by a focus on math and English.
9. Black and Hispanic students lack access to quality arts education compared to their white peers, earning an average of 30 and 25 percent fewer arts credits, respectively.
10. As of 2020, only 19 states include arts as a key area of their state accountability system, and just 13 have done a statewide report on arts education in the last five years. The last comprehensive national arts education report by the U.S. Department of Education is over 10 years old.
The statistics certainly demonstrate that being involved in the arts makes a positive difference in a kid’s life, and the effects are far-reaching – long beyond their school career.
My concern is that in schools, it often seems like art and music are an afterthought to sports, the higher priority. I’m not trying to single out any particular person when I write that; that’s just the general sense I’ve often gotten in my time in school – both high school and college – and in talking to people who work in schools. It saddens me to see art and music offerings getting cut, or students having to pick between being in band or choir, for example.
It shouldn’t be a competition between athletics and the arts. Both have their place and both teach students valuable life lessons. If a student wants to be in both, all the better. In high school, I knew many classmates that were not only talented musicians but skilled athletes. That’s the great thing about the small schools around here – students have the chance to be part of lots of different activities and don’t have to choose just one area of focus.
We just shouldn’t view the arts as less than, or not as important.
I get it — sitting through a fifth-grade band concert with all the squeaks and outof- tune notes is not a lot of people’s cup of tea. Watching your kid give a speech probably does not have the same thrill as watching them shoot the game-winning basket. But, for some kids, athletics may not be their thing, while art, music or drama is their chance to shine. They deserve recognition, too. How do school districts make sure to prioritze arts education? A lot of it falls back on the school board and making the decisions to spend a little extra money when necessary to keep arts programs thriving. Practically speaking, it can look like making sure drama/art club advisors and music directors are fairly compensated for hours worked outside of the school day, and not letting music and art teachers get stretched too thin. You can only add on so many extra responsibilities before the quality of teaching starts to suffer. Also, students going to state for art, drama or music should be recognized just as much as state athletes. And, I’ve seen some good examples of this locally.
As a parent, you could get involved in your local Music Boosters organization, or volunteer to help with concerts or plays. I’m sure the support would be much appreciated.
It all comes down to understanding the value of the arts in enriching students’ lives, and not taking that for granted.
In interviewing an artist recently for a story, she talked about how beneficial creating art is for young people because it forces them to slow down and go through a process to an achieve an end result. It teaches perseverance, a skill needed in many areas of life. The more ways we can impart these life lessons to students, the better.
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