Arts education belongs in the curriculum for all students, and not just because the arts can enhance skills in other content areas.
As an instrumental music teacher, I often advocate that the arts are essential for all students, even if they are not classified as core subjects. Over the years, I have used investigation on how the arts increase reading comprehension and mathematics to make the case for their existence in the public school curriculum. I have pointed out the social skills that band, orchestra, and choir ensembles develop. I’ve even argued that for some students, a music, art, dance, or drama class might be the only thing that gets them to school every day.
All of these points are true, but they fail to explain why the arts truly belong in every student’s K-12 curriculum. Instead, they rationalize the arts through a utilitarian lens that links their existence to how they can enhance skills and understanding in other content areas. After 20 years of teaching music, what I have learned is that the arts are essential because humans are inherently creative beings and must have opportunities to develop their creativity in order to understand themselves and participate in a pluralistic society.
Recently, I was humbled and honored to be named the 2022-23 Teacher of the Year in my county, as well as one of seven finalists from the state of Maryland. This award gave me an opportunity to reflect on the purpose of the arts in education and gave me a platform to explain to those who will listen why the arts are a core subject on its own merits. The arts are essential for education and for life because the essence of the human being is creativity, not productivity. And one of the problems with American public education today is that it is hyper-focused on graduating productive students, not creative ones.
How did we get here?
I recently attended a performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington and toured an exhibit highlighting the building’s history as well as former President John F. Kennedy’s support of the arts in America. While exploring, I read the words from a speech Kennedy gave at a 1962 arts fundraiser printed on one of the walls: “As a great democratic society, we have a special responsibility to the arts, for art is the great democrat, which attracts genius creativity of all sectors of society. society.”
Throughout his presidency, Kennedy often emphasized arts education and the creative mind as essential components of a free society that promotes equal opportunity for all. His words remind me that it is possible to embrace the intrinsic value of the arts and that there is potential for a big boost when leadership understands the impact of the arts on society.
Kennedy’s support for the arts was admirable, but unfortunately, due to a number of social factors, it was not enough to increase the provision of arts education for public school students. In the 1960s, the the federal government began to push for more performance tests and public education began to focus more on raising standardized test scores in math And Science, which led to a decrease in the time dedicated to the same courses that instill, teach and develop creativity and personal identity. Data collected by the National Endowment for the Arts indicate a decline in art education with a downward turning point sometime between the late 1960s and mid-1980s, as well as a decreased public participation in arts eventssuch as classical and jazz concerts, ballet and opera in the last 30 years.
As a music teacher and coordinator of the Academy of Fine Arts at Governor Thomas Johnson High School, I consider myself lucky. I teach in a college and career path program for the visual and performing arts in which students spend half of their school day studying the arts at an advanced level, while connecting their knowledge from core classes through multidisciplinary projects. They choose to be part of an intentional community that values the arts. But that hasn’t always been the case for me.
Throughout my teaching career, I have witnessed firsthand the decline of arts education. I watched as the focus on academic subjects tied to standardized tests eliminated elective slots in students’ schedules. I saw the push for STEM education forcing students to choose arts or technology for the spaces that were left. And when that led to low enrollment in art courses, I watched my colleagues become demoralized when their courses were cut and they were given sections of STEM courses to teach, unprepared. Over the years, several colleagues who once had bands and choirs of 50 to 60 students began to struggle to maintain a class of 15. This is not because students don’t want these courses, but because they can no longer Include them in your schedules.
Another problematic trend is the decline in art education as children grow older. In my district, for example, elementary students spend an average of 300 hours a year in arts-based instruction, including music, visual arts, drama, and movement. In middle school, that number drops to 78 hours. For high school, with only one semester of arts education required in our state, the average annual instruction time drops to 33 hours per year. As students progress in their education, school becomes a less creative and exploratory place, and students become less engaged and optimistic about their learning.
With experience teaching elementary, middle, and high schools, I can attest to the trend of students seeming less motivated and engaged as they progress through school. When I taught in the elementary schools, I was greeted by enthusiastic and engaged students. When I taught high school students, I felt the burden of the chaotic transition to a seven-period day where students used to a homeroom setting were sent in multiple directions to classrooms with different expectations. Many of them dealt with anxiety as they learned to handle the demands of school logistics. During this stressful time, there were no more weekly experiences in music and art. Instead, they had to choose only one elective.
At the high school level, with only one semester of arts education required over four years, students are encouraged to “get out of the way” of the fine arts requirement during their first year and many do not re-enter an art salon. art classes for the rest. of his educational career. Some are told they don’t have time to take art courses because they need to focus on advanced-level courses to get accepted to colleges and get scholarships. At the moment when students need to deeply understand their identity and passions, and develop emotional intelligence, the time they spend in art classrooms dissipates.
More and more of my high school students are not sure what they want to do after high school. When I ask them about it, they are afraid of making the wrong decision and can’t articulate what makes them happy or what they are good at. Many of my students have expressed that they feel forced to decide the rest of their lives without the opportunity to understand who they are.
The public education system’s emphasis on testing has sent a message to students, teachers, and families that the most important element of student performance is the final score, not what happened along the way. That message has created generations of students who fear failure, aren’t prepared to take risks, and don’t know how to accept and learn from mistakes. The fear of failure can lead to a lack of creative thinking and progress within communities.
What does this mean for today’s students?
Many of today’s public school students face an identity crisis. In America’s quest to be more innovative than its competitors, its leaders have neglected the fact that creativity is directly related to personal identity, and students have suffered. They have had fewer opportunities to develop a deep understanding of themselves. Arts education is often misconstrued by administrators and legislators as a “fun break” from the rigors of core academic classes; however, the arts provide a natural and authentic environment for students to explore the world around them, create meaningful work as a mode of self-expression, and collaborate within a diverse population, all while creating a positive culture of acceptance and belonging.
There is a large body of investigation showing that students who have a solid understanding of who they are and how they can contribute to society are more likely to succeed. Some studies They have found that participation in the arts increases levels of empathy and tolerance for others. Others have revealed that teaching music can have a positive impact on children’s development. self-esteem and selfconcept. And multiple studies have offered evidence of the correlation between participation in the arts and emotional well-being, social development and awareness of others.
We cannot develop creativity without first understanding ourselves and our role in the society in which we live. That’s why we need more arts education, not less. For public education to prosper and society to prosper, we cannot simply teach students academics. Literacy and math skills are of no use to students if students don’t first know who they are and how to apply that knowledge to their individual gifts and desires. Educators are responsible for teaching the content and curriculum, but they are also tasked with teaching students how personal identity, empathy, creativity, character, and morality connect to what they are learning, and the arts education supports that.
Since the roots of public education lie in preparing students to enter society and not just the workforce, we have, in Kennedy’s words, “a special responsibility to the arts.” But we have neglected the arts as a vital component of public education for far too long.
Society cannot advance and prosper without creativity. Focusing on a productive society and prioritizing standardized test scores in schools has created problems for our students. The solution is to reformulate our priorities to value creativity and recognize the importance of the arts.
