The Arts Should Be Taught In Schools

Imagine children expressing themselves and learning at the same time. What causes this phenomenon to happen? The answer is simple: the arts do. The arts used to be something that students in most schools had an opportunity to take part in. Children would always look forward to their art classes because it was a time where they could relax and express themselves. Recently, more and more schools have been cutting funding or eliminating arts programs all together. This has been because of a lack of federal funding in public schools. Another reason is that many schools have been doing so is because they’ve wanted to spend more money on different areas such as STEM subjects. Instead of cutting these massively beneficial programs, schools should integrate the arts into the curriculum through STEAM rather than STEM. Often many schools do not use STEAM programs because many people do not see the benefit in the arts. This needs to be changed because the arts contribute to many factors of

If we are lucky enough to bring these programs back, they won’t be for a couple of years. Which means some students who are in school during these difficult economic times will completely miss out on the benefits of arts education. (qtd. in Hawkins).

This is a shame since there have been many demonstrations of the arts being beneficial for students. Poole, uses STEAM in her classroom to integrate the arts and common core subjects. “In my own classroom I find it easy to infuse STEAM into my curriculum. My students are creating CO2 dragsters for instance. In order to do this, they had to understand force, motion and friction; while keeping in mind aesthetics and workmanship” (Email Interview). This clearly demonstrates how the arts and common core subjects come together to teach students more than they could ever know with the subjects on their