Why Should Your Child Continue In the Arts? 

The arts are serious and rigorous academic disciplines.

They are an essential aspect of human knowledge.  They express feelings words cannot convey, and convey knowledge and meaning not learned through the study of other subjects.  They represent a form of thinking and a way of knowing that is based in human imagination and judgement. 

Students of the arts outperform their non-arts peers on the SAT.

Scores for students who study the arts are consistently 50 or more points higher on the verbal and 44 points higher on the math portion than students with no coursework or experience in the arts. 

The arts prepare students for jobs.

Skill requirements for all workers are going up, including those in production and support jobs.  The ability to communicate, adapt, diagnose problems and find creative solutions is more important than ever before.  These attributes can be nurtured and honed through studying the arts.  In a classroom of 30 children, 10 may be employed in arts-related occupations in the future. 

The arts delight students.

They are also intellectual disciplines of substance.  Like language or mathematics, the arts involve the use of complex symbols to communicate.  Arts teachers daily engage their students in the use of higher order thinking skills like analysis, synthesis and evaluation. 

Creativity is naturally developed through the arts.

Creativity is a source of joy and wonder, while it bids its students to touch and taste and hear and see the world.  Creative thinking, learned early, lasts for a lifetime and can be applied in other endeavors.  Total creativity measure four times higher for elementary students in an arts curriculum than for those not taking the arts. 

The arts help students achieve education goals.

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence broadens our view of how humans learn and realize their potentials.  It shows that the arts can play a crucial role in improving students’ abilities to learn by drawing on a range of intelligence and learning styles, not just the linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence upon which most school are based.  Through the arts, students can integrate other subjects such as language arts, mathematics, foreign languages, social studies, science and physical education. 

But most of all, your child should continue in the arts
To recognize beauty.
To stimulate imagination and express themselves.
To create community and build connections across generations.
To learn to sing, play, draw, dance and act.
So that they will be more sensitive, compassionate and gentler.
To have fun and relax.
To understand ourselves, others and fundamental human issues.

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got the swing!