Art = Creative Solutions
The
Value Art, Live Substance Free program is a testament to the philosophy that
art is a tool and can be used to teach anything.
If
you are like most people you have heard the argument schools should have art
programs, because they attribute to gains in math, reading, cognitive ability,
critical thinking, and verbal skills.
Although this seems like a pretty tight case and there are plenty of
statistics to support it, art has always lived a precarious existence in our
schools. The public thinks art is nice to look at it, but not essential. Due to
tight budgets and the ever growing state mandates to the classroom curriculum,
art gets cut.
For
years art has been treated as an appendage.
(Appendage being defined as a something that is not necessary in itself
but adds to the convenience to the performance of the main component.) The reason for this is that our schools teach
art for the sake of art and art's benefits' get obscured. We teach how to paint still life's, self
portraits and papier-mâché sculptures and the public in turns asks "What's
the point". It not hard to understand
why. When was the last time someone came up with a great papier-mâché invention
that help humanity?
It
is from this point of view that art gets removed from our schools at a slightest
mention of fiscal hard times. It is easily removed because educators continue
to preach its importance but do not actually incorporate it in their schools. This appendage approach can be easily fixed
by using art as a tool. Art can be seamlessly embedded into all curriculum where
the line between math, science, language and art blur so much so that it is
hard to see where it starts and ends.
For
Example, Children could use clay to create bowls in a math class and then the
same bowl could be turned over and the kids could do experiments as to what arch's
hold the most weight by stacking bricks on the top of the arch. In a science
class kids could make nature prints while learning about plant species and identification. In a language class students can create flip
art to tell a story they read or one that they written themselves. By using art
in this manor it would cease to be on the front line of budget cuts.
Art
Education is the seed to creative and critical thinking. And with a new approach all of our students
will get the benefit of learning how art and design can solve problems. Creativity
It is what helped bring us the smart phone, face book and facial recognition
software. These advances would not be
possible without the inventors' imagination and vision to create something out
of nothing. This is Art.
Art
was used seamlessly to teach every lesson in this Life skills program. In turn the class created this book, window vinyl's
and several videos. To see more explore
www.lifeskillshast.blogspot.com
