Babs Blogs

Ask. Me. Anything.

Note: This is an essay I wrote for a graduate school application. I just now submitted it, so wish me luck! Let me know if you want the bibliography.

  Researchers have been able to definitively say that educating school children in the arts does positively impact their academic performance in other subjects. The evidence shows that there are correlations between educating children in the arts and brain development, but one must keep in mind that correlation does not prove causation. Regardless, it seems that being involved with subjects such as preforming and visual arts promotes academic self-esteem. When children are involved in the arts they also tend to strive to achieve in other areas of academics.

            During a 2009 John Hopkins University Summit, consortium researchers found “tight correlations” between a training in the arts and brain developments. The researchers found student improvement in cognition, attention and learning. Even the summit admitted that despite knowing about these correlations, as well as correlations between music and mathematical talents, correlation should never make one assume that arts education is the causation of such talents and improvements.

            If one has not been able to prove that an education in the arts specifically causes cognitive development, why are art programs still regarded as important in the school system? The answer to this question is given to us by Gazzaniga while summarizing the findings of the John Hopkins University Summit. Gazzaniga, who is the director of the Sage Center for the Study of Mind at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said, “an interest in a preforming art leads to a high state of motivation that produces the sustained attention necessary to improve performance and the training of attention that leads to improvement in other domains of cognition.” The importance of the arts in a public school not only lies in exploiting the correlations between the arts and brain development, but in the very real motivation that it gives to students.

            In October 2009 the Center for Arts Education came out with a report detailing what they had found when they analyzed discrepancies between schools in New York City that offer arts education and ones that don’t. The Center analyzed data from over 200 schools over a two year period, and their findings showed that educating children in the arts benefited them and effected graduation rates positively. Not only did the schools in the top third of graduation rates offered their students the most education in the arts, but the schools in the bottom third graduation rates offered the least amount of arts education.

            The Center for the Arts Education report contained many other findings that support the idea that an education in the arts promotes academic motivation. They claim that research shows that arts education has a measurable impact on keeping at-risk students from problems with delinquency while also promoting academic performance. The report says that over the past decade students at risk for dropping out attest in several national surveys that their participation in the arts was the reason they stayed in school.

            The research that I’ve conducted for this paper has lead me to believe that there are two reasons that children that participate in arts education seem to be motivated to perform better in other academic fields. One reason is that children who choose to study the arts tend to be children who are already high academic achievers, according to the report Studio Thinking: How Visual Arts Teaching Can Promote Disciplined Habits of Mind. The other reason is that participating in the arts creates motivation in other academic fields. A 2008 report by The Dana Foundation states “an interest in a performing art leads to a high state of motivation that produces the sustained attention necessary to improve performance and the training of attention that leads to improvement in other domains of cognition.” Children who get an education in the arts tend to try harder in other areas of academics, whether it is due to an already existing motivation or a motivation that is cultivated by their study in the arts.

            Scientific evidence that directly connects arts education and cognitive development is notoriously weak, but the chance of said development is certainly not the only positive impact that arts education might have for students. This essay shows that statistical and analytical evidence gives merit to the idea that an education in the arts positively impacts the students that participate in it. Educating students in the arts promotes motivation and academic achievement. These arts classes can be used, at least, as a tool to push more children to graduate and to inspire a further love of learning.

1. Finish the essay portion of my PU application.
2. Finish Harry Potter 3.
3. Call Children’s International and cancel my sponsorship (I ain’t got the money, honey!)
4. Gain 100lbs from turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes.
5. Think of a plot that I’ll actually enjoy writing and start it. Perhaps re-start “The Strange Disappearance of The City of Jasper,” my favorite non-finished NaNoWriMo.
6. Hang out with my parents.