Too often school programs that cut arts education echo a familiar tune; a tune that often parallels the statement, “arts education was deemed unnecessary and impractical in today’s society.” But when exactly did creativity and personal expression become unnecessary to our growth as a society? The argument is no longer a matter of art education’s importance. That debate is antiquated; an argument that seems to have been settled long ago, with the realization that the arts are in fact important. However, while the debate was settled, art education’s absence remains a problem. The issue is no longer about the art’s importance, but rather, it is about priorities and what is really important to us as a culture. We need no longer to merely argue art’s importance in education, but rather why art is part of the priority.
As school budgets dwindle and testing takes precedence, debate ensues as to the priority of certain
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Funding is the basis for all decisions made by school boards. In order to continue to receive funding, schools must prove that they are adequately using the funding received, which is demonstrated through standardized testing. The higher students score on the test, the more funding the school receives. So what if the solution to raising test scores was in the problem? Studies have shown art educations direct relation to heightened standardized test scores. In fact, a study conducted by Columbia University confirmed that art education plays a pivotal role in the development of complex cognitive and creative capacities, those that are often needed for mathematics, science, and language arts. Therefore, arts education enhances learning and is in fact the driving force behind almost all other forms of learning