Is it important to teach the arts in schools? Many believe that the arts are insignificant and to teach them in schools would be a waste of time and money. These people are undoubtedly looking at the arts in the wrong light. The arts have further purpose than to provide kids with a creative pastime, taking part in artistic activities also has the potential to change the way that they look at the world, improve their problem solving skills, and gives kids a sense of pride in their culture. To me it is clearly evident that the arts are key in children's development ergo most definitely should be included in the core curriculum in schools.
The arts helps teach children creative thinking which can assist them in other areas of their education such as book analysis and problem solving in innovative ways as well as expand their area of knowledge in general. Specialists make the point that art helps students develop a sense of “ownership of learning,” and when discussing why she had her students do visual projects to assist in the learning process a middle school teacher commented that "This is another way they understand what is going on. They bring their own perspective into it, and it gives them ownership. It's their work, it's not what I taught them." Besides this, surveys have shown that employers prefer hiring applicants that have a broad range of knowledge and 93 percent of the 318 business leaders that were surveyed recognized that a “demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly and solve complex problems” is more important that what the job candidate's major happens to be. The benefits of the arts are often overlooked due to the fact that people are only looking at the short term effects while the substantial long term benefits are neglected.
In the debate over whether the arts should be taught in schools, debaters tend to focus on the physical aspects of the matter “How will the arts help you get a job?”and “What applications does art have?” but, the mental advantages are often times overlooked. Artistic expression has been used as a form of therapy since the mid-20th century, and since that time has been used to aid...
