Encouraging Arts in Education - Research Paper Example

Encouraging Arts in Education Art in education offers a wonderful starting point in children, or rather school going children. It in most cases seems counter-intuitive being associated with problem solving and playing a major role in education, as it has always been associated with appreciation of beauty , nurturing of talents and much more in that particular line of thought. When introduced at a younger age in school going children, it plays a major role in teaching them how to manage frustrations, uncertainty and ambiguity with innovative ideas and solutions. Most people regard art education as luxurious, while others a waste of time that should otherwise be translated into books. It is such a pity that there still exist individuals with little or no knowledge on how much art contributes to child development. It therefore should be known that children need to know much about the world than what can be merely learnt in class through texts and numbers. This paper is therefore aimed at encouraging art in education and changing the mindset of the stakeholders so that they can view art in a different perspective. Language is developed in young children through art (Upitis 2011). Their interaction with different colors, shapes and actions enables them to learn words in this field. Their toys equally play a major role in enabling them learn various words and meanings attached to these objects. Children also draw images to assist them in remembering word meanings as opposed to written language and some express themselves through ideas as they find it much easier that way than writing, which might be difficult for them. A teacher, for instance, at school might put paper together to form an object that is a ball and while playing, the child is able to figure out that whatever object they are playing with is a ball and so on. After making their own creations, children will describe them and talk about their feelings on various creations. In this manner, they are able to learn some aspects of language (Education Commission of the State 2006). There also is a very close relationship between arts and ones academic performance and it is said to be able to immensely improve on the academic performance of an individual. Young people regularly and actively participating in arts are more likely to rise notches higher in their academics as compared to those who hardly or do not participate at all. Engaging in arts has the ability to broaden children’s minds for broader thinking, make them open minded and assist in critical thinking. Many parents would forbid arts as a subject to taken by their children with the notion that it is a waste of time or simply because they expect their children to be associated with the likes of science subjects only, as they look down upon them for they seem to be less challenging and therefore easy (Eisner 2002). Motor skills among children also develop as a result of art. The ability of these children to hold paints, brushes and scribble with crayons is essential in the sense that it facilitates in the development of motor skills. Children as young as three years are encouraged to make drawings such as circles and use safety scissors, which is quite important as the use of scissors helps them develop the dexterity needed for writing. This ought to be encouraged in schools offering art as a subject to its learners (Center for Educational Policy 2007). Visual learning is another major contribution of art to an individual. Visual-spatial skills are for instance developed when children draw and work with clay (Cawelti 2006). The ability of some to even operate on mobile phones is a clear indication of the fact that visual information is being taken in, that is acquired from pictures, books and television. Art education is important in the sense that it teaches students on interpretation, criticism and the use of visual information and having the ability to make choices based on the same. Visual arts knowledge enables children to become smart consumers and have the ability to in the near future fit in this world filled with marketing logos (Casbarro 2012). The children’s self esteem is highly boosted with the help of art. As they make their drawings and make new things, they praises they occasionally receive after every good work helps in the raising of their confidence. The feedback they equally receive from each other while working on art works helps them in accepting criticism and praise from people and therefore whenever they are faced with similar issues in life, they are better placed in terms of handling the issues. They therefore will not feel less of themselves when faced with criticism or discouraging words from people as they would have already known how to handle such predicaments (Burton 2011). Art develops creative problem solving skills in children that help them to avoid wrangles among them that would have otherwise been solved in a better manner. There is a possibility of seeking different solutions to the same problem as art teaches them that problems can have more than one solution and questions more than one answer (Beattie 2010). Children learn that feeling frustrated is fine, as the right amount of frustration can make one think critically and in turn come up with new ways of dealing with a problem. For instance, children might have a variety of games to play and one of the children decides that their game is the one they want played, refusing to co operate with the one who wants the game of their choice played might lead to a disagreement and even end up not playing at all. What this other child does is brilliant as she ends up making a decision to have the game of the child’s choice played by the two of them. This therefore settles that and they end up playing happily, and that is the power of art (Catterral 2008). Children become more innovative and are in many ways able to see and interpret the world in simple yet powerful ways. They can make a range of creations and aesthetically pleasing objects from the same materials, meaning that there is a sense of originality in their work. Collaboration among kids also results in outstanding creativity as they emerge with a new idea that enables them perfect on their work. Frustration in art work as it always is enables children to think more creatively and finally come up with solutions. This is quite impressive to the society as it requires individuals who are willing to take risks, thinking and innovative people that are ready to seek new ways and improvements and not the type that only follow directions given. Children, in art, learn on the expression of their unique identities and develop habits of mind that end up being of so much assistance at the workplace (Chapman 2010). Art also encourages self expression among children, and being that art is all about expression; children should be left to make their own decisions in artwork for them to develop a sense of self expression. As children do not feel their artwork is representational, it is good enough not asking them about what they are drawing (Sabol, 2012). Art can be of immense help to those children with special needs as they experience more failures and disappointments in life and the only sure way for them to keep going and hope for them is art, where they find success as there is no way to do anything wrong in art as well as fail. For children with no verbal or with limited means of self expression, arts becomes their savior as through it they are able to express something that they could otherwise never do (Carrie 2011). These children through the help of art are then able to attach meaning to life and see themselves as equals to the rest who are not as challenged as they are. One can as well make art their career so this therefore disputes the idea of art simply being all about fun and time wastage. Stories are told of people pursuing majors in arts in various colleges and technical programs and can boast of a life full of comfort. This though can only come to pass if art is encouraged among our school going children at a tender age so that interest among them in the field grows as they climb the education ladder. These teachers in the field once had interests at childhood and equally had supporting parents to enable them go through it successfully. The paintings we see on streets and the portraits we approach artists to make of us or make us have an art origin or are purely art. Without these artists, we would not have our favorite artworks done; even the houses we reside in are as a result of plans made by man through architecture. The movies and cartoons that we seem to never get enough of are simply artwork. In the education field itself we find instructors who teach art subjects and are quite prosperous and could even be happier than those in the other fields than some parents consider prestigious. To sum up, arts are very important in every student’s academic and social life as evident in the discussion above. Being open-minded and a critical thinker can only come by if one engages themselves passionately in art and even see it from a career perspective. Considering the children with special needs, art is seen as a very crucial subject when it comes to developing self esteem and helping them to learn at almost the same rate as the others in their class. We also have realized that art is not a waste of time but a way of increasing on the learner academic performance in class and making learners able to develop problem solving skills. Children are also able to identify some words learnt through their drawings and manipulation with objects that they encounter in their everyday life, and this aids in developing their language skills. Children creativity is also boosted through art as they are able to create a picture in their mind concerning a particular object and put it in drawing with hardly any help. Development of self expression is equally a factor and they tend to learn it through putting whatever is in their mind on paper. Art is therefore a subject that every school with an aim of fully developing a child in the right direction and preparing them for the future should put into account. Works Cited Read More