Why Keep Arts in School?

10 Lessons the Arts Teach

The arts teach children to makeGOOD JUDGMENTSabout qualitative relationships.
Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the
arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail.

The arts teach children that problems can haveMOREthanONE
solution and that questions can have more than one answer.

The arts celebrate multiplePERSPECTIVES. One of their large lessons is that
there are many ways toSEEandINTERPRETthe world.

The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem
solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity.
Learning in the arts requires theABILITY
and aWILLINGNESSto surrender to the
unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.

The arts makeVIVID
the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we
canKNOW. The limits of our language do not
define the limits of ourCOGNITION.

The arts teach students thatSMALL DIFFERENCEScan haveLARGE EFFECTS. The arts traffic in subtleties.

The arts teach students to think through and within a
material. All art forms employ some means through whichIMAGESbecomeREAL.

The arts helpCHILDREN
LEARNto say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose
what a work of art helps themFEEL, they
must reach into theirPOETIC CAPACITIESto
find the words that will do the job.

TheARTS ENABLEus to
haveEXPERIENCEwe can have from no other
source and through such experience toDISCOVERthe range and variety of what we are
capable ofFEELING.

The arts’ position in the school curriculum symbolizes to
the young what adultsBELIEVEisIMPORTANT.