Speech- Amelia Caldwell

Our education is one of the most important aspects of our early lives. Its purpose is to help us be as successful as we can and want to be. The problem, however, is that not everyone achieves at the same level. Some students don’t even graduate and are not prepared to go on to college after high school. While one could argue that perhaps these lower achieving students simply are not as capable, it is more likely that other factors such as low socio-economic status and lack of opportunity are to blame. Schools haven’t figured out how to close this gap between the achievements of moderate to high-income students and low-income students or those learning English as a second language. This achievement gap is certainly a hot topic in education today. There is another hot topic, however, which just may hold the answer to the first and that is the topic of arts in education. At the very threat of educational funding cuts, parents are signing petitions, making phone calls and writing letters to argue that keeping arts in our schools is important. Sometimes, I wonder though, are people really aware of the benefits of the arts in our schools or do they just want their children to win the Best Band in the Land competition? The topic of arts in education is an important one. Studying the arts has proven connections to success in the classroom, but students from low-income families often lack accessibility. By including the arts with core curriculum in our schools, we can help to close the achievement gap.

Now you may be wondering, how on earth will the arts of all things, help to close the achievement gap. Let me tell you, that although the arts are underappreciated in the school system these days, they can alter a child’s learning patterns and capabilities for the better. Recent studies by Lois Hetland and Ellen Winner have proven that the arts have a correlation with certain academic achievements. For example, there is proven causation between the practice of acting in the classroom and improved verbal skills and between music listening and instruction and improved spatial reasoning. Spatial reasoning, the ability to position and orient ourselves in a daily environment, is related to traditional academic subjects such as math and science. Links have also been found between the study of dance and strong spatial reasoning skills, as well as between learning music and success in mathematics. There are other studies underway to show whether there is a correlation between arts education and school subjects such as mathematics, reading, and verbal skills.  Research conducted by the Dana Foundation shows that an interest in the arts leads to an increased motivation for success in the classroom. They also found links between high levels of music training and the ability to manipulate information from working and long-term memory; in children, there are links between music and skills in geometry. The intense study of acting leads to memory improvement. Finally, dancers’ use of observational learning of choreography is able to be transferred to other cognitive skills.

The PBS documentary, Arts and the Mind, directed by Leo Eaton, explores how the arts affect communities as a whole.  The first half of the program shows us how the arts help improve school performance of children, build creativity for problem solving and enhance learning capability. The brain is like a muscle, it needs exercise. It is the same as training for a sport. By studying an art, different parts of the brain are exercised to create one strong “muscle.” Studying the arts can act as a conditioning method for other types of learning and hones the brain for traditional academic activities.

Before attending high school, I attended a school focused on the arts where, in addition to having in-depth classes focused on nine arts areas, core curriculum teachers incorporated the arts into daily learning activities. They had us draw, sing, dance, and write poems. Although these activities may seem like “busy work,” they are actually quite helpful. Even this year I have a teacher who likes to incorporate artsy components for teaching. The topics we use these activities for are the topics everyone in my class has mastered the most. Taking notes and listening to lectures is not enough. We need a different way of learning that includes the arts. We need a rigorous curriculum that has the arts incorporated. We need to sing songs about derivatives in AP Calculus, and write poems about fast twitch vs. slow twitch muscles in Human Anatomy class. How am I supposed to know how to do a quotient rule derivative without the song Ms. Dewees taught me? If we incorporate the arts with our core classes, students will be able to learn the lesson more efficiently and will remember the content longer. 

Current core content in Kentucky requires schools implement the arts by requiring one credit hour of study in Arts and Humanities during high school. This is in contrast to the recommendation of Eric Jensen, author of Arts with the Brain in Mind, who says the arts should be considered a major discipline in education. Jensen demonstrates that the arts are assessable, brain-based, culturally necessary, inclusive, wide-ranging, meaning it can be applied to all subjects, have survival value, and have no detrimental impact on learning. There is proof that the arts can be a major discipline in school just like mathematics, science, and language.

The arts certainly have positive impact on learning for anyone who has access to them. Including arts-rich content in our schools is one way for low-income students to gain access. The National Endowment for the Arts did a study that found low socio-economic status students with a high level of arts education are more likely to graduate from high school, enroll in college, graduate from college, and are even more likely to register to vote than low socio-economic status students with a low level of arts education. The study shows that 96% of low-income students who attend schools with a high emphasis on the arts graduate from high school as compared to 78% of low-income students who did not attend a school with an arts emphasis. Not only this, but 71% of low-income students with a strong arts education attend college after high school while just 48% of low-income students from schools with minimal emphasis on the arts attend college.

The evidence is clear. An education rich in the arts boosts learning for all groups of students and has been shown specifically to narrow the achievement gap between high income and low income students. But how can we, as high school students, affect the achievement gap? We need to advocate for the arts in our schools. We need to share our artistic abilities with our classmates. We need to encourage our friends to become invested in arts-related activities, whether it is signing up for art classes, joining the choir, or auditioning for the school play. We need to equip ourselves with knowledge about the arts, and we need to share this knowledge with our parents, teachers, and school administrators. By speaking up and standing up for the inclusion of arts in education we can change the stereotypes society has formed about the students who take arts-focused classes and the success of low-income students in our community. We have the opportunity to better the future. Join me. Be smart. Fill the gap with arts.

 Bibliography

Arts and the Mind. Dir. Leo Eaton. TPT National Productions and Eaton Creative, 2012. Documentary.

Damasio, Antonio. “Art and the New Biology of the Mind.” Italian Academy Forum. Columbia University. 2006. Lecture.

The Dana Foundation. "Learning, Arts, and the Brain: The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition." wjh.harvard.edu. Dana Press, 2008. Web.

Hetland, Lois & Winner, Ellen. "Cognitive Transfer from Arts Education to Non-arts Outcomes: Research Evidence and Policy Implications." Handbook of Research and Policy in Art Education (2004): 135-62. www2.bc.edu. Taylor & Francis, 23 Feb. 2004. Web.

Jensen, Eric. Arts with the Brain in Mind. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2001. Print.