Teaching Artists and the Future of the Arts
Submitted by Steve on December 6, 2012
From Nick Rabkin writing for Huffington Post:
When students study the arts, they develop their abilities to be creative, plan, explain their thoughts, work together effectively, build theories, make predictions, create analogies, solve complex problems and assess their own work. These are commonly understood as “21st-century skills.” What's more, a growing body of research has also shown that arts education correlates strongly with basic competencies — literacy and numeracy — and a wide range of other positive outcomes for young people. The bottom line is that children who have more arts education do better in school and in life. Significantly, the correlation happens to be strongest for low-income youth, the students most often failed by our schools.
One would think that would make the arts a high priority for young people in schools and communities everywhere. But, the arts continue to be misunderstood as an unnecessary luxury, and arts programs and teaching positions are generally first on the chopping block when school budgets are tight.