"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."

Pablo Picasso

My Senior Paper was a research paper that I worked on during first semester of my senior year. I continued to work on and edit it during second semester, and mostly update things relevant to what I was working on in my project. Feel free to read the paper below, or open it as a document instead, since it is forty-six pages long. If it doesn't open, try this: you need to go to Windows Explorer | Tools | Folder Options | File Types. Locate the DOC extension and click on Advanced. Clear the Confirm Open after Download check box.

Senior Research Paper

Maia Horsager
CIS Senior Paper

Education, Society and Art:
the cognitive and social benefits of art in the curriculum for in youth

Art and society are inextricably linked and have been for thousands of years.  Ever since our ancestors painted scenes of successful hunts on the ceilings of their caves humans have represented their lives using various artistic mediums.  Whether intentional or not, art provides us with knowledge of a culture and society based on its placement in the context of history.  In contemporary society, the public has become more involved in the arts than ever before, almost without realizing it. Developed countries offer a wealth of artistic materials to support the age of globalization, which coordinates mass information and commerce with the accessibility of technology and independent creation techniques: iPods isolate and satisfy musical needs of teens and businessmen alike, Photoshop gives artistic power and prowess to any camera-happy mom or dad in suburbia, YouTube empowers the under-represented and determined, then we have Dreamweaver web design, Garage Band music creator, Barbie Fashion Designer, HGTV 3D Home Design… the list goes on and on.  We live in an age where art design and creation is extremely popular and accessible for all, but the education of such activities has not yet caught up with the availability of such technologies. 

Education is meant to give younger generations tools to succeed in the future, since it reflects society as a whole (Fowler, 25).  By giving priority to certain subjects that are valuable according to those in power or of influence, how can a curriculum that lacks the most up-to-date methods of creativity and design give our children the opportunities to succeed?  Education is meant to teach information and pass on knowledge that is considered culturally relevant, and therefore necessary for an individual’s success in society. 

This paper will explore first the relationship that art has with society, and then the development of arts within educational systems of the United Sates of America.  Next, I will examine current trends of art education in our society.  Following that, I will present findings of scientific and psychology evidence regarding the importance of the arts.  After, I will provide social and communication benefits related to art education.  Finally, I will conclude with a few action items concerning various ways of implementing the arts into education.  For the purposes of the paper “the arts” will include all fine arts: visual arts, theater, music and dance.

Chapter 1: Background info in education and aesthetical values

Social Value of the Arts
An age-old question, “What is art” is almost impossible to answer in accordance with an entire population’s differing definitions of art.  A recent online survey, taken by 11,464 visitors to the website, ranked the criteria for art based on six vital qualities of art according to various philosophers over the centuries (Baggini).  The ranking went in this order: art should express feelings, be enjoyable, give insight into reality, demonstrate technical ability, represent formal beauty, or provide moral instruction.  These qualities of art, thus ranked by members of the general modern middle class public, give an interesting insight into the social values of this population.  The fact that moral instruction came last may signify that people consider romantic art, which is usually pretty and emotive, to be more legitimate as an art form than certain forms of avant-garde art.  However, the responses and opinions on art have changed frequently over the course of human history.  A culture’s answer to the question “What is Art?” gives interesting insight into the values and beliefs of that society.

The value of art in society has evolved and changed in nearly every culture over the millennia.  Visual arts have been used to communicate messages and teach Biblical stories; theater has been used for humor and entertainment; dance can be part of a community celebration and music has long been an intellectual pastime or mental reprieve.  Education of the arts is often dictated by the politics, values, and desires of the society.  At one time or another the social elite, artistic patrons, the clergy, the wealthy, the royals, the school districts and the government have all had some power of control over art distribution, censorship, and education (Efland, 2).  In Western culture, this development closely follows the patterns of power of society in general.  What is valuable to the government, the people, the rich and the famous is often what is taught in the schools and therefore closely reflects the society as a whole (Efland, 3-5). 

The social status and admiration of artists within Western cultures has varied greatly over time.   An artists’ role within the context of society is usually based on their relationship with their patrons.  A patron of higher status that determines the content and form of the artwork often limits the artist to a specific style.  However, artists that have a higher status than their patrons are not governed by rules and regulations, but rather have the liberty to express themselves and generate art however they please. These artists reflect the dynamic individuality of a society that often appreciates art for its intellectual or aesthetic value and patrons will purchase art as a symbol of status.  The term “starving artist” is derived from the eras during which certain artists depend on the public’s opinion of their art in order to win popularity, and therefore generate an income (Efland, 6-7).

American artists in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century were in a difficult situation, partly because they were slightly disconnected from American social culture due to a European artist’s education (de Kay, 1900).  Due to their disconnect with the culture, the lack of a large upper “well-to-class” and in part due to their tendencies to form small circles amongst themselves, artists had a difficult time gaining respect and due attention (de Kay, 1900).  In Europe, the monarchies set the bar high for artists and gave them fashionable reputations, whereas in America, “the men and women who are to instruct and charm the present generation and whose handiwork is to stand as proof of the artistic level to which our culture has attained…occupy an inferior station [and] lack the sympathy and acknowledgement of their fellow-men” (de Kay, 1900).  This unfortunate status of the artist in America was difficult to overcome, and in part merited a growth of private art schools and conservatories to raise the bar.

Some of the major changes in modern arts took place in America before the country’s artists had really established a particular style and were still struggling to follow European modes.  The revolutions that took place occurred within the dance, visual and musical spheres in particular.  The modern dance revolution in America consisted initially of a few dancers who rebelled against the strict confines of classical ballet with which they were trained and began to explore other theories of human movement and expression.  Dancers wanted liberation from the form of dance that many described to be, “unoriginal and academic,” (Mazo, 18).  Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan defined, separately, the dance technique now called Free Dance, which emphasized the natural qualities of human movement as a physical expression (Zornitzer, 96).  Part of this exploration was due to a fascination with technology.  Fuller used unique stage lighting to create impressive and beautiful visuals, following the cultural obsession with photography. 

Another facet of this same revolutionary thought was the modern visual art that was popularized with Impressionism and began to develop into the more radical forms of Cubism, Dadaism, and Expressionism in the early twentieth century.  Artists in these spheres often created art as a reaction to the current events and societal changes around them.  Commentary on social values was prevalent among Dadaists, and Expressionists created art with strong emotive representations as a reaction to the many political and economic struggles across the globe. Due to great political disturbances and upheavals, artists have created works that strongly oppose acts of war or government decisions.  Pablo Picasso, for example, painted Guernica in response to the excessive bombing of the small Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.   His wall-sized painting expresses outrage, loss, grief and confusion in shades of black, white and grey and is one of the most powerful and impactful pieces of modern art.

These artistic revolutions engaged the general public and depended upon their opinions more so than the previous eras of art, primarly because of the subject matter the artists were dealing with.  Their goals were to grab the attention of their fellow citizens and communicate important messages, feelings and opinions.  Contrary to elite artists of the Renaissance, these artsits had no patrons to be regulated by or strict scholastic or secular rules to adhere to.  Instead, these were often regular citizens-turned-artists because of their extraodinary talent and creativity and had to struggle for their voices to be heard.

The struggles we have had in our century as far as responding to and understanding the art that surrounds us come from the very social and cultural nature of much of the art that is produced.  Part of the problem is finding the correct way to properly integrate art into the lives of everyday people.  Artists in America come from every class, race and social standing, but not everyone has the same artistic knowledge base because art is not always taight in school.  When it is taught, much of the focus is on technique rather than history, meaning, and social implications.  This is where things need to be reformed.  Aside from ensuring that all students have access to the arts for cognitive benefits, we need to ensure they are getting a proper education of art that informs them about their world and helps them communicate with society in an effective manner.

Education in the United States
The public education system in the United States, though not very old, has gone through plenty of reforms during its history due to developing educational theories and changes in the demands of society.  While rebuilding itself after the civil war, America took some of its educational concepts and practices from successful European nations, but many of those only provided schooling for the elite classes and privileged families (Efland, 72).  The great social changes of the nineteenth century were centralized around the industrial revolution.  The common school that was developed was essentially state-supported, and primarily supplied a literate workforce with organizational skills for improving career-based skills (Efland, 73).  Factories, machinery, and new industries required workers that were educated in reading and writing, direction following was imperative, and designers were needed in the process of urbanization. Education of the masses was required, and drawing, primarily outlining geometric shapes, was included in most schools to help prepare students for the work force (Efland, 114).  However, the “masses” generally only included white male children at this time in history. Thus, while drawing made its way into education, it was included as a “masculine subject” that was solely for the benefit of the society’s economy (Efland, 147). Towards the middle of the century, however, the real rational for public education became the desire for an increase in moral standards of behavior and to offset the social consequences of urbanization (Efland, 74).  While cities became places of poverty, slums and crime, educators investigated the use of music and drawing to help instill moral faculties and elevate standards of proper behavior in schools during the 1840’s (Efland, 74).

Moral concerns in society propelled a sense of greater need to educate all youth.  During the mid eighteen hundreds, nearly every state began to require free public education funded by the government (Goldin).  Compulsory education followed the availability of free public schooling starting with Massachusetts in 1852 but was not nationally established until 1918  (Goldin, Table Bc-A).  These movements to educate all children corresponded with the idealist thought that propelled the Romantic age in literature and art.  The idea that children were innocent creatures with the capacity to be influenced by transcendental ideas pushed an art education movement in the schools (Efland, 146).  This was a time when women become more prominent in the education system due to their natural intuitive instincts and spiritual insight into moral ethics (Efland, 147).  Women in the workforce helped propel a great change away from the notion that art was simply a “luxury” given to women of high status families as “refining accomplishments,” (Efland, 142).  Instead, the romantics believed that art provided natural insights to the spiritual and moral values that society was sorely lacking during these times of social and economic shifts (Efland, 146).

Within society in general, the new working class in America had more opportunities and a greater accessibility to artistic resources and knowledge than previous generations had.  Because of these changes, it became evident that certain art forms could be a means to self-improvement and knowledge expansion rather than an ornamental subject of propriety and accomplishment  (Stankiewicz, 2002, 325).      One particularly successful and innovative educator was William Bentley Fowles (1795-1865) who created various teaching methods that were very different from other educators of his time.  He was a strong advocate of the arts and taught lessons in which the children created maps on blackboards, made linear drawing, and participated in physical exercise and general music (Fowles, 75).  Fowles also believed in equal education for all, and frequently utilized his older students to teach lessons to younger ones (Fowles, 75).  However, it was clear during his time, the 1820’s, that private and public schools were very different.  As stated above, the arts were still considered to be an “educational luxury,” and therefore were not necessarily taught for practical purposes (Fowles, 76).  Another pioneer of art education includes William Torrey Harris with his view on idealism (Fowles, 130).  Harris included the study of aesthetics, the philosophy of art and beauty, in his educational theory as a way to include religious moral thought and idealize society’s values (Fowles, 131-32).  Friedrich Froebel, a German philosopher, studied the moral development of preschool-aged children and initiated the kindergarten movement in the United States that examined the effects of self-expression and didactic art (Fowles, 122). 

By the end of the nineteenth century, social reform was in high demand with women demanding voting rights, trade unions emerging, immigration houses appearing, and scientific discoveries raising philosophical questions about the implications of education (Efland, 148).  Social Darwinism and Freudian psychology demanded a closer look at the development of all human beings, linking the experiences and relationships to their surrounds as the primary factors of cognitive and moral development (Efland, 149).  Francis Parker developed an educational theory that experimental learning was the best way for students to relate their knowledge to the world around them.  He frequently took his students on field tips to explore the natural world and learn about science and create paintings and drawings of their observations (Efland, 168).  John Dewey followed this manner of thought by developing an educational theory that was rooted in manual creations and activities that fueled cross-curricula interests.  His definition of art was “an attitude of spirit, a state of mind” that gave meaning to physical experiences of the world around us (Efland, 170).  The advances of educational thought would later give rise to the progressive movement of education, melding observation and experience with practices of reading, writing, drawing and creating.  However, once vocational arts as a method for preparing students for the workforce began to decline, the purpose of art in school was redefined.  Art teachers used aesthetic theory and the appreciation of beauty as the primary reason for art in schools, and it was therefore regarded once again as an elective subject of less importance by the time World War I started (Efland, 186). 

The greatest problem the public schools had to face during the early twentieth century was the lack of a higher central decision making power.  This made it very difficult to define the most necessary and important subjects to be taught nationwide.  School districts across the country were very small and made many of their decisions without outside help.  The disaggregation of the elementary and secondary schools meant that almost all had different policies, resources, curriculum and regulations.  The national government slowly but surely began to unify the districts and provide clear-cut standards and regulations (Stankiewicz, 326). Most of these reflect the value of traditionally esteemed subjects of reading, writing and arithmetic.  Unfortunately the values of society and its relationship with art have not yet been applied to national standards in education.  The standards do not define the expectations and required achievements in the same way that society does.  While art in education made big strides during a hundred years, its status has remained secondary for another hundred already.

Chapter 2: current trends in art education, and community action development

Art has a legitimate aesthetic, moral, intellectual and/or spiritual value for millions of people on a daily basis, but has yet to be given equal attention within the national academic standards for education.  Education of our youth is supposed to prepare them for a role within society, and since that the arts are so embedded in society and form such a crucial part of cultural identity and expression, it seems natural that they would be granted a secure position in the education system.  Even though free and equal public education is a constitutional right and even requirement for people in most first world countries, that education is not guaranteed to include all, or even any, of the arts.   Literature is always included as a language and communication focus, but other arts are considered primary forms of communication to many people and are hardly ever included in communications courses. 

Recent trends in American educational reforms have considered the arts to be a necessary component of curriculum, but so often the arts are the first to be cut from budgets and rarely receive extra program funding because they are not part of the core academic curriculum.  During the second half of the twentieth century especially, national budget problems and concerns about our nation’s academic scores in math and science seriously affected the availability of the arts in public schools.

During the mid twentieth century, as psychology became more of an accepted science for research, certain studies on the “science of the mind” harshly separated art from the sciences as a less useful subject matter for education.  As Elliot Eisner stated in the John Dewey Lecture at Stanford College,

The influence of psychology on education had another fall-out. In the process science and art became estranged. Science was considered dependable, the artistic process was not. Science was cognitive, the arts were emotional. Science was teachable, the arts required talent. Science was testable, the arts were matters of preference. Science was useful and the arts were ornamental.  It was clear to many then as it is to many today which side of the coin mattered. (Eisner, 6)

Educational practices have been quite narrowly structured for many years in our nation, now.  We search for the “best methods,” we strive for uniform curriculum across districts and we do more testing than other nation on earth, creating a type of “industrial teaching” that will raise achievement scores for all (Eisner, 7).  The direction that was taken to guide schools towards teaching “reliable” subject matters that could be tested severely hindered the access to visual and performing arts in school.  These “less reliable” subject matters were given less priority since they are difficult to measure by a given standard of success or achievement.

In 1977, Coming to Our Senses: The Significance of the Arts in American Education, a reportheaded by David Rockefeller, was published in coordination with the Arts, Education and Americans Panel.  The study highlighted the importance of including art in education and raised awareness among the general public, finding that education systems across the country were seriously lacking a structured guideline for including art in the curriculum.  Though the study was later quoted to be somewhat controversial, it got people thinking about the general importance of art as a universal continual provision rather than a privilege provided on occasion by local providers (ACA, 30).  During the 70’s and 80’s many districts suffered from “fiscal crises” that prompted a series of heavy budget cuts and curriculum reform with the loss of thousands of teachers, of which a great percentage were art-specialty teachers (ACA, 30).  These budget cuts and reforms shifted policies to focus on the basic subjects of mathematics, history, literature and science. The main goal of the educational system, according to the government’s reports during the 1980’s, should be to prepare students “for a demanding future,” which included greater emphasis in math and science, especially during the age of technological enlightenment and competition with other nations surging ahead in the exploration of space (ACA, 31). 

The national standards of art inclusion and education in schools were almost nonexistent during the 1970’s and 80’s.  A report by Elliot Eisner concludes that the average time students spent learning and utilizing the arts in the classroom was under one-half hour (Bodilly, Augustine and Zakaras, 10).  Middle schools often had an art specialist who would see students once a week and alternate from school to school in an entire district, but elementary schools often depended upon the artistic inclinations and ingenuity of the general classroom teacher.  For families that placed a higher value on the arts than their school did, select private providers were available for a fee.  “Drive-by” arts also became a popular method of exposure to the arts for students that became involved with certain cultural organizations with the intentions of giving children opportunities to see performances and exhibits (Bodilly, Augustine and Zakaras, 10).  The problem with this though was that the students were not connecting any sort of academic content of curriculum to their experiences and therefore were rarely receiving many cognitive or social benefits.

During the 80’s, a few arts advocates made their voices heard for the overall improvement of art education in public schools. One popular goal of the Getty Center for Education in the Arts was commented on in the 90’s as an alternative method of keeping art in public schools.  Since arts have always been available in schools for the arts, though usually based on technical art production at a professional-level, there was a need to emphasize the opinion that arts are for everyone.  The goals of these advocates are to build artistic appreciation and a positive attitude towards artistic ideals in everyday life.  Students are encouraged to produce art, but are not required to be proficient in every medium.  The emphases are to encourage high levels of perception and discrimination of art works, develop imagination and the capacity for wonder and awe, and create students that have an empathic mind and an understanding of greater real-life concepts.  Art history, art criticism and aesthetics are fundamental components of this discipline- based learning (Bodilly, Augustine and Zakaras, 11-12).  One particular problem with these objectives is that it can be incredibly difficult to include these aspects of art in the general classroom or even art classroom of a public school. 

Harvard University psychologist Howard Gardner started another argument that quickly became popular for all those advocating a broad and inclusive education including the arts.  Here is a legitimate question proposed:

Among the great movers of the twentieth century, who was the smartest and most important?  Was it physicist Albert Einstein, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, social reformer Mohandas Gandhi, modern dance pioneer Martha Graham, Communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, painter Pablo Picasso, composer Igor Stravinsky or writer Virginia Woolf? (Fowler, 39)

Howard Gardner stated that deciding who is the most intelligent isn’t the kind of question we should be answering and the answer really can’t be determined based on any inclusive criteria.  All of the people listed above certainly had an enormous effect on our modern society, but each must be valued for their unique qualities and contributions to our “present-day consciousness,” (Fowler, 39).  Gardner determined that human beings have different forms of intelligences that can be tapped into and developed according to their organization, human development in general and interactions with society and informational contents (numerical, spatial and intrapersonal information), among others (Gardner, Frames of Mind, xxi).  What he means is that not every human being will excel in mathematics or writing or reading or dance; rather, every person has different abilities that reflect their own personal form of intelligence.  That being said, schools that teach to one certain style or intelligence are not giving every child equal opportunity to succeed.  While is nearly impossible to teach a classroom with individualized lessons for each type of intelligence represented, it is important to at least develop teaching strategies that include artistic, kinesthetic, spatial, visual and intrapersonal methods.

Despite advocate’s efforts, the arts have recently gone through another wave of struggling to hold their place in the curriculum.  A recently debated law, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act has also influenced standards of education across America, especially in the art world.  The act, signed into law January 8th, 2002, defines certain academic standards for all American students in reading and mathematics.  Schools that do not achieve certain test scores may be punished after a certain amount of time, and schools that continually improve their students’ test scores are rewarded.  The overall goal of the law is to improve national-wide student proficiency in reading and mathematics as well as to ensure all students achieve success in these academic disciplines required and graduate from high school. 

The goals of the NCLB act were obviously founded in care and high expectation for the achievement our nation’s children, but the method of assessment and regulation is the questionable topic.  In theory, all students should have equal access and opportunity to achieve certain standards of knowledge, but in practice it is so difficult to effectively measure all areas of learning when each student has different capabilities for excellence.  While the assessment-based exams are intended to evaluate students on a standard set of knowledge in order to bring all students up to a reasonable performance level in mathematics and reading nation-wide, they are designed in such a way that eliminate students’ intellectual freedom and removes fundamental intrinsic learning practices. For example, since the tests are high-risk, meaning they come with consequences for students, teachers, schools and districts if certain scores are not reached, many teachers and administrators have changed their teaching methods to ensure improvement in the areas to be tested.  Many curricula focus on teaching to the test, meaning the teachers focus on reading skills and math skills by giving practice assignments and activities based on the test format weeks or months in advance.  This single-track teaching detracts from students’ creative thinking abilities, analysis skills and their abilities to problem-solve since many of the questions on the test are multiple choice and true/false.  Furthermore, given that many students have different learning styles, or strengths of intelligence, as Gardner would say, the tests are limited in their effectiveness at evaluating the achievements of every student at a comparable level.

The extrinsic motivations that the government provides through the NCLB act are also taking away from the fundamental intrinsic motivation so highly valued in every classroom.  When students and teachers alike fail to be motivated by inner values and natural excitement, broader learning abilities drop sharply and creative potentials are put on the backburner.  Furthermore, when teachers are required to focus their attention on teaching math and reading to all students at an equal level, those students that are behind put a damper on the opportunities for other students to exceed in other subject areas, and the whole class loses precious time that could have been spent exploring the arts.

Other standardized tests have also recently been challenged as inadequate for evaluating student’s achievement and abilities.  The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), for example, tests intelligence based on verbal and mathematic skills, making it very difficult for students with high spatial and visual abilities but perhaps lower mathematic and logical reasoning skills to succeed.  The consequences for that individual may be very great, and the outcome of their test may not reflect their true abilities, making it much more difficult for them to succeed in a traditional manner by applying to colleges that look primarily at this score for entrance acceptance.  The trouble with the tests like the SAT is that they measure what Daniel Pink calls “L-Directed Thinking,” based on logic, sequence, literal meaning and analytic function (26).  Careers with this sort of thinking would include computer programmers, accountants, and mathematical scientists, which are all obviously valid and important, but we can’t have a educational system that caters only to the future analysts of the world.  “R-Directed Thinking,” on the other hand, is rarely measured by standardized tests because many people still hold the opinion that “artsy” aptitudes are of little statistical value for measuring intelligence and achievement (Pink, 27).  The neurobiological research done on the functions of our brains and the importance of a multi-disciplinary curriculum for students to develop both methods of thinking are discussed below.

Chapter 3: Psychological and Neurobiological evidence in support of art education

Neural growth and synapses
The brain is one of the most fascinating and least understood organs of the human body.  Humans have consciously considered the origin of thought for centuries; only recently have scientists begun to understand a fraction of the abilities and complexities that the ‘control center’ of the human body has.  The brain, as it grows and changes, is what makes a person unique and individual.  Research by Marian Diamond in the 1960’s helped generate one such theory on brain growth and development (Diamond and Hopson, 10-16).  Prior to the report “Effects of Enriched Environments on the Histology of the Cerebral Cortex,” published in 1964, it was believed that the brain simply developed to a specific weight and size with a preset number of neurons and did not grow or change during childhood, adolescence or adulthood until neurons began to die off at a steady rate in mid-life (Diamond and Hopson, 15). This report, however, along with subsequent studies, provided proof that the cerebral cortex, the portion of the brain responsible for conscious thought and cognition, is indeed capable of growing, developing complex neural connections, and has been proven to be thicker in width in individuals that have been exposed to a more stimulating environment (Diamond and Hopson, 23). The cerebral cortex is made up of thousands of neurons that form connections with each other by way of myelin that keeps growing throughout childhood (Diamond and Hopson, 51).  This myelin, considered the branches and spines of the nerves, is what “helps coordinate impulses that arise within the cortex such as thoughts and interpretations” of the world around us, rather than simple signals from the body’s sensory organs (Diamond and Hopson, 50).  This is what gives us human qualities and allows us to learn, imagine, investigate, question,and associate new information with previously learned processes and experiences.

The problem is, however, that the brain can’t handle such an overload of neural synapses continually growing and firing at every possible source of input for an individual’s entire life.  The cortex has a very high metabolic rate by age two or three, about twice as active as an adult’s, and continues at that plateau until just before adolescence, during which it drops slowly to reach an adult level by about age eighteen (Diamond and Hopson, 54). The teenager’s brain goes through several stages of neural trimming of synapses, in order for it to become more efficient and organized, with growing capabilities for analysis, evaluation, collaboration, and abstract and theoretical thinking.  Teenagers still benefit from varied and consistent input, however, because new neural connections are still forming.  The biggest recognizable changes are the individual’s lessened abilities to master a new skill with the same initial ease of a child.

There is a generally known phenomenon for language learning abilities in young children called the “window of opportunity” or “critical period.”  Children that are exposed to second languages before the approximate ages of 10-12 have a much higher likeliness of becoming fluent in that language.  Many researchers believe language has a pre-programmed area in the brain specialized for language development located within the left hemisphere of the cortex (Diamond and Hopson, 135).  This area is able to distinguish between native and non-native speakers by the age of ten months, and will respond to sounds specific to the language they hear on a daily basis during the first year as well (Diamond and Hopson, 134).  Children that are exposed to more than one language as a young child will have much more natural success with further language learning and development than students who begin learning a language after the “critical period,” This is believed to be due to the neural connections that already exist more intricately with higher complexity due to the different processes required for two different languages.  A child’s brain has very complex neural connections in other areas as well, other networks of neural branches that have very high capabilities.  If these areas are not taken advantage of, they get “trimmed off” so to speak by a certain age when the brain isn’t metabolizing nutrients at such a high rate as it was previously (Diamond and Hopson, 54).

One such similar phenomenon of a critical learning period has been proposed for learning processes involved in music.  A recent study conducted in Germany located the brain region responsible for perfect pitch (Diamond and Hopson, 205).  Contrary to the previous popular believe that music was a “right-brain” activity, perfect pitch neurons are likely located in the left-brain, rather close to the language center in the temporal lobe (Diamond and Hopson, 205).  Noting this, and recognizing the ease with which young children learn to play new instruments in comparison with adults who study the same amounts from the same teachers, it is realistic to state that children under the age of 12 have a greater opportunity to learn new information and benefit from it for much longer.  Notably, it is important to establish the neural connections early while they are receiving extra nourishment and energy, and before the brain needs to cut back on connections that haven’t been used.
All of the early development that goes on in a child and young person’s brain is critical to the functioning skills and abilities later on.  That which is presented and introduced to a child will likely influence and strengthen their cognition and developmental skills for years down the road.  This is why a multi-disciplinary education is so imperative.  If we were only to teach students two or three subjects without relating them to outside concepts and disciplines, our children would all have a very one-track way of thinking and learning.  Children need a wide range of informational sources and an even greater variety of methods with which to organize and interpret the information.  Visual thinking, abstract creating, dramatic play, and other forms of sensory learning provide these sources and methods that will keep a young person’s brain growing, branching to become highly flexible and interconnected.

Left-brain versus right-brain
Contemporary thought has significantly altered the public’s understanding of the functions of the brain.  While many people refer to “left brain” and “right brain” concepts and abilities as separate and “unequal,” this is not exactly true (Pink, 13). Up until the 1950’s, scientists’ knowledge of the functions of the two halves of the brain was limited to the following: the left hemisphere controlled speech and language comprehension, which was crucial to our human intelligence, and then it was believed that the right hemisphere was subordinate and perhaps did not even have any real function (Pink, 14).  Now modern technology in the form of an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) has disproven this theory, and shown that the brain’s two hemispheres both play equally important roles in function and capabilities.  The hemispheres do function differently, but it is almost impossible to isolate an activity to one half of the brain because they work together on an intrinsic level.  However, “neuroscientists agree that the two hemispheres take significantly different approaches to guiding our actions, understanding the world, and reacting to events,” (Pink, 17).  A few important findings on how the hemispheres differ include the following:

Clearly, both sides of the brain are essential for everyday life.  Together they can hear a statement from a friend (“I’m going home”) and understand that her expression of narrowed eyes and sneering lip give the reasons behind her actions (She’s angry at you for not sympathizing with her).  The two hemispheres have different specialties, so to speak, and both require adequate attention because neither the right brain nor the left brain would understand the aforementioned situation without the collaboration between the two.

The advocates of “right brain teaching” are valid in their arguments for increasing educational activities and processes that exercise the processes of this hemisphere.  Nevertheless, teaching cannot be completely geared towards right hemisphere activity because, as stated before, the right hemisphere needs the left to provide the logical, sequential and literal information.  Only with that can the right hemisphere successfully determine the context, emotional expression and synthesis of the big picture (Pink, 25).  Therefore, integration of several subject matters that utilize both hemispheres is most beneficial to comprehensive learning. A strong proponent of multi-hemispheric teaching, psychologist Benjamin Bloom, developed a set of taxonomy that provides educational objectives to improve curriculum content and provide deeper learning methods for a holistic education (Krathwohl, 212).  The objectives of the taxonomy are to increase the cognitive abilities of students and ensure that they are able to remember, understand, apply, evaluate and create within their learning experiences (Krathwohl, 215). This taxonomy is a clear example that the duality of the human brain requires that value that must be placed on all functions of both hemispheres.  The concepts and objectives have even recently been used to develop clear statewide standards, for example, in Minnesota’s Language Arts Standards for grade 12 (Krathwohl, 216).

A Yale psychologist, Robert Sternberg, has even gone so far as to develop a new “R-Directed” standardized test that works in conjunction with the current “L-Directed” SAT (Pink, 58).  This test, titled the Rainbow Project, is intended to measure the creative and integrative cognitive abilities of students on their way to college.  Blank cartoons require captions, story-based problems ask for real-life solutions, and provided short story titles (E.g.: “The Octopus’ Sneakers”) are used to discern the students’ narrative and writing abilities, something that SAT did not require until recently (Pink, 58-59).  The Rainbow Project, though still be developed, is proof of the renewed interest in the importance of artistic and creative thinking as an indicator of intelligence and a predictor of success in college and careers (Pink, 59).

Cognitive Development/Transfer skills
Cognition is the mental action of processing knowledge through thought and experience.  Most people associate cognitive skills with mathematics and science and don’t immediately think of the arts as a crucial element for the development of cognition. However, it has been shown in recent research by Richard Deasy that art has an impact on the development of cognitive skills such as spatial reasoning, problem solving, perception, and higher-order thinking skills (Deasy, 164).  As Deasy’s research shows from his visits to multiple schools and programs around the country, students who participate in the arts on a daily or weekly basis have a greater ability to transfer the skills they learn in their creative arts classes to solving problems in other subject areas (Deasy, 152).  This ability to transfer cognitive aptitudes may stem from the neural connections within the brain that are stimulated during creative processes.  The brain is active in different areas during distinct activities, and the more areas that a student uses on a regular basis, the more they will strengthen a broader range of neural cells that can be used in all aspects of their learning (Deasy, 156).  For example, given that similar areas of the brain are stimulated during these activities, the visual arts can help students with mathematic reasoning and spatial organization; dance can help with visual memory, non-verbal communication skills and expression; and drama can help students gain language comprehension, analyze storylines, and practice problem-solving strategies.

A further proponent of the arts as a tool for strengthening cognitive abilities is the educational strategy of teaching designed for students with various intelligence types.  Howard Gardner was an early advocate of using diverse teaching methods in the general classroom in order to ensure that every student was given an equal opportunity to learn.  His idea was that each child has a unique learning style and a different intrinsic method of processing, storing, and retrieving information based on the very biology and nature of the human brain (Gardner, 57-58.)  Therefore, it is essential for teachers to present lessons in various formats in order to offer each student a technique that will suite their needs. For example, many students are visual learners and may not understand a complex lecture on a subject simply by listening to it.  These students would probably have high spatial intelligence, according to Gardner, and would most likely benefit from a graph chart that demonstrates certain concepts.  Other students may have high logical-mathematical intelligence, or bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.  Gardner identified seven different intelligences that teachers should be aware of in their classrooms (72-73). 

In order to provide equal opportunities to all students, creative art projects in the general curriculum are very useful tools.  Teachers that ask their students to create a skit, draw a map, write a poem, tell a story without words, or find a real-life metaphor are supplying their students with various methods for acquiring knowledge and storing it in a way that will best suit their needs.  “The arts… make demands on the brain that spread thought processes across areas now largely ignored,” by encouraging new ways of thinking and stimulating areas of the brain that are used less frequently (Fowler, 43).

Chapter 4: Social development and communication within the fine arts

 Social  and individual motivation
The arts can be a motivating subject area for students of all backgrounds.  First of all, arts are self-enablers, subjects that allow students to create and invent with few limitations and plenty of room to explore, invent, construct, play and imagine (Fowler, 56,).  The joys of independence and personal choice in the arts realm usually far outweigh those in a linear subject with little room for errors.  Second, the arts help students discover who they are and what they enjoy, something every human strives to discover in their lifetime (Fowler, 57).  By pushing students to look for inner desires and discover their own strengths and weakness, the arts give students greater control over their cognitive capacities, which propels a sense of self-worth and intrinsic motivation (Fowler, 57). 

As Elliot Eisner describes them, the arts are particularly motivating because they give people a sense of aesthetic satisfaction (Eisner, 12).  At times, the satisfaction results from a struggle with the physical artistic material, from the sense of immersing oneself in the project and thereby losing track of time, or from the abilities to be physically involved in the work with senses (touching, hearing, moving or seeing the results).  Furthermore, the arts tend to spark a nerve of emotion that cannot be summoned from many other subjects. 

The sense of vitality and the surge of emotion we feel when touched by one of the arts can also be secured in the ideas we explore with students, in the challenges we encounter in doing critical inquiry, and in the appetite for learning we stimulate.  (Eisner, 14)

This rush of feeling, often sympathy, solidarity, pleasure, determination, or excitement, allows students to forge a connection with their and others’ artwork that often continues outside the classroom.  The continuation of an interest to an extracurricular activity helps solidify knowledge learned and encourage interdisciplinary curiosity.  Plus, art encourages different types of thinking that are quickly being realized as extremely helpful in our global economy: “the ability to deal with conflicting messages, to make judgments in the absence of rule, to cope with ambiguity, and to frame imaginative solutions to the problems we face” (Eisner, 15).  In a world lacking clear-cut rules, singular appropriate answers, and unified ideals, it is important to teach students to deal with these problems early on.  By promoting the ideals of art in the classroom, and integrating the arts into other relevant subjects, students are more likely to gain the abilities to cope with real life issues when they need to.

The arts are also motivational because they provide an escape from the banality of everyday life (Fowler, 63).  It is well known that teenagers frequently “escape” to their headphones in the hallway and after school as a method of evading the rough and unaccommodating world surrounding them.  Giving students a similar release during the school day with an interesting focus allows them to enter a different state of mentality, relax their minds, and break free from the limitations around them (Fowler, 63).  By delving into the artistic realm of their imaginations, students will feel more compelled to create, reflect and share ideas, thus motivating them with a clear sense of direction.

Social Growth and Communication
An important developmental process, especially for young students in elementary school, includes emotional expression and social communication skills.  Emotional recognition is something humans learn at a very young age.  Babies as young as 3 and 4 months begin to smile in response to happy and silly emotions projected toward them (Sroufe, 84).  Emotional expression, however, requires more than just observation during the early years of life.  Children learn to physically express their emotions through social development and interaction (Sroufe, 151).  Furthermore, they learn how to deepen their capacity for clear expression through physical manifestations of creativity (Dubowski, 13-15).  For example, as students develop their capacity for discerning the emotional meanings of artistic works, they further deepen their emotional literacy.  This ability gives them tools to represent, express and communicate ideas, emotions, perspectives and values with others around them.  These empathetic tendencies greatly improve social and communications skills in general and expand a person’s awareness and perceptions of the world around them (Fowler, 60).

As a person’s emotional tendencies evolve and change with age, they should have opportunities to be “producers” as well as “consumers” of knowledge, art and culture (AEP, 13).  Students approaching and going through adolescence in particular benefit greatly from experiencing the control and power that they have over an artistic project in order to develop a stronger sense of self and envision a positive future for themselves. The cognitive capacities that are strengthened through the arts (analysis, abstract thinking, critical thinking, reflection) are critical for helping students develop a stronger self-identity, which in turn strengthens their communication and social interaction abilities (AEP, 13).

The “language” of the arts is also essential for identity building and seeing oneself as part of a larger culture, according to Charles Taylor, philosopher at McGill University (Fowler, 58).  The arts are used as tools for expressing ideas and philosophies of life, which bring people to realize and accept the similarities and differences of all of humanity.  The arts represent struggles, desires, fears, hopes and joys in such a variety of ways that everyone can identify with them on some level and practice cultivating empathy for others, which brings about a greater sense of community and respect for all.
Another facet of most fine arts classes and programs is the group work as a fundamental component of the process.  Theater, music and dance are activities that require close contact, positive relationships, personal interactions, active listening, and group reflections (AEP, 14).  All of these elements help students actively practice good social skills and effective communication among their peers and with teachers or other adult figures.  Active involvement is much more likely to help students build lifelong social and communication skills than theory or lectures would.

Therapy and Communication
Drawing and painting has often helped young children communicate and express feelings or uncertainties during situations of stress, discomfort, or anxiety.  Many psychotherapists will use art and play as way to help children open up about certain issues in their lives that they may be otherwise unwilling to discuss (Case and Dalley, 2).  The pictorial or phsyical representation of disastrous events can also be therapeutic for children and youth, allowing them to cope with unknown feelings or situations in which they have suffered. Not only are drawing and painting useful, but also role-play situations and building with blocks have been effective (Singer and Singer, 53).

Several case-based studies have helped at risk or traumatized children through art therapy.  After September 11th, 2001, children created both positive and negative artistic representations as a way to release inner emotions or thoughts (Singer and Singer, 53).  This release of pent-up feelings through creative expression is helpful to them by providing concerned adults with valuable information about their anxieties and reservations so as to properly address the issues at hand.  Students with disabilities also benefit from art-based projects by providing them with different methods of communication to fit their individual needs.  Art therapy has great potential to help special needs students find a communication niche that they feel comfortable with.  When reading and writing in a traditional sense are not helping these students, they get frustrated and often fail in school.  However, when they have different options that keep them interested and happy and stimulate different areas of their brain, they are much more likely to continue trying and eventually achieve success.  Art in the classroom or in community programs is also effective for bringing marginalized, or at-risk students new opportunities to participate and get excited about school, therefore making it less likely that they will need extra help in the future (AEP, 30).

Chapter 5: Arts Integration and Societal Involvement

It can be argued that students are able to gather sufficient information about their world through reading and writing about the events, emotions, and achievements of people in history.  While that may be true, the counter argument is that the arts provide a divergent way of thinking that gives students the opportunity to express their reactions and interpretations of events and opinions around the world in a more personal, symbolic and comprehensive way than simply writing or speaking about it.  The multiplicities of options that arise with an artistic education provide a more complete reality of the world.  Our world is not represented sufficiently through scientific equations—even though they provide one explanation of the reality, they are not enough to fully understand the nature and interactions around us.  We need to utilize visuals, historical facts, emotions, politics, physical evidence and some knowledge of chemical reactions to fully understand the ecology of field destroyed by over-farming.  In this way, the integration of art and creative explorations into the core curriculum and extra-curricular activities is an essential way to provide students with a more complete knowledge base in the classroom, and in community art programs (Fowler, 47-50).

Arts Integration
Given the broad and inclusive nature of art, developing unified ideas for teaching the arts to all students has been a significant problem.   They are difficult to grade, and administrators often feel they need a specialist in order to have them taught effectively. As stated in the report, Revitalizing Arts Education Through Community-Wide Coordination,

The fact that researchers, practitioners, and advocates do not always present a united front on goals and preferred delivery mechanisms for arts education renders coordination across organizations somewhat challenging. (Bodilly, Augustine, and Zakaras, 29)

However, arts integration is a reasonable strategy for providing students with all of the above-mentioned benefits without requiring a specific set of curriculum or evaluation tools for every classroom. Traditionally, arts integration means that several subjects can be taught at the same time utilizing a “cluster of content and skills” that will enable students to meet a variety of standardized outcomes (AEP, 22).  If we acknowledge the fact that students learn differently, but need a variety of sources of input, it makes sense to suggest that teachers and communities provide a constant influx of art into the schools and extra curricular activities with a flexible strategy of implementation and execution.

As mentioned above, recent research results have “taken the view that arts learning could increase motivation, social development, self-confidence, perseverance, and stress reduction” (Bodilly, Augustine and Zakaras, 33).  Through integrated curriculum with the arts, these life skills (“engagement, practice, drafting and redrafting, social interaction, etc” (Bodilly, Augstine and Zakaras, 33)), and opportunities to escape from constant achievement-based subject matters, benefit students’ potential in both art subjects and other general academic subject matters.  By integrating art into required curriculum, teachers will be giving their students ample experience to explore and discover new knowledge based on the in-depth and creative process that is required of any arts-based project.  The excitement that students get from explore things based on their own curiosity is much more motivational than a structured tour through the evolution of required knowledge given by some teachers (Eisner, 16).

There are many subjects that can be combined with an arts focus in order to deepen the learning processes of both subject matters.  For instance, this year the Ordway Center for Performing Arts in St Paul, Minnesota, led a teacher/artist workshop based on the relationship between dance and mathematics.  Students and teachers involved learned how the fundamentals of dance have a strong basis in mathematical concepts such as geometrical shapes, angles and balance, symmetry, rotational or oppositional spacing and patterning.  Music and physics are integrated quite often at ARTech, the school of arts and technology in Northfield, Minnesota, in order to teach students how sound waves work and how acoustic guitars transmit sound, for only a few examples.  History and theater can obviously be combined when learning about Shakespeare, and students can also learn about societal norms in historical eras by studying fashion aesthetics or popular advertisements of the time.  There are also plenty of opportunities to study science and movement, since nature is constantly in motion and can be more easily understood visually and physically in many instances.

Art Aesthetics and Citizenship: social engagement
One of the fundamental goals of educational systems, whether intentional or not, is to prepare the students for “membership in society,” (Houser, 46).  The indicators of these intentions come with the changes in educational values as societal values change over time.  Social complexities arise from immigration, urbanization, industrialization, emerging and disappearing middle class, globalization, political upheavals and economic crises.  With new knowledge of what their students should be aware of as they prepare to face the world, educators have emphasized different disciplines accordingly (Houser, 46).  “Social studies” or “civics” have been recently popular subjects that try to encompass the meaning and analysis of society and current events.  But since society is so complex, education of civic issues “requires multidisciplinary education” in order for the students to develop interpretation and problem-solving skills as people in a “culturally diverse, democratic society and interdependent world” (NCSS Curriculum Standards for Social Studies, qtd in Houser, 47).

The importance of teaching students to understand their world and be able to work well in it means giving them as much exposure to different issues as possible and giving them a variety of tools with which to discuss and resolve these issues.  Middle school and high school students are not naïve to the conflicts and struggles of the world around them, but educators need to provide them with educational experiences that move them “to think, to feel, to engage in cognitive and emotional struggles and… to act upon the basis of… insights and convictions,” (Houser, 50).  Here is where the arts can play a role in helping students use their emotions and strong opinions, base them in knowledge and experience and communicate them to their peers and surrounding community.

Community Education Action 
One particular opportunity in which we can introduce art in the schools without focusing simply on technique but rather on the cognitive and social process is through community art education.  By taking students out into their community, we are giving them ample opportunity to explore their surroundings visually, experientially, physically, and culturally.  The book, Community Art in Action, by Kristin Congdon, outlines the major reasons for including community art projects in any classroom curriculum.

Many communities over the course of history have used art as a healing process, used to “balance the world, purify the mind and heal the body” (Congdon, 36).  Pure aesthetic pleasure is also reason to implement arts involvement; a pleasant community is often filled with local artistic influences since humans are so naturally attracted to beauty.  More art educators are striving to include everyday issues and expressions related to community life, since there has been a recent renewed interest in “art that takes place in, and is meaningful to, everyday people” (Congdon, 3). 

Multicultural education is also a goal when learning about community art.  Every community has diversity, but it is important to recognize first where one comes from in order to recognize similarities in traditions and learn about other origins and differences.  It’s also important to recognize and celebrate local customs in art, which helps forge friendships, deepen roots and reshape identities (Congdon, 38).  Learning about traditional crafts, culinary arts and local history helps people understand and value these community customs.

When students in particular learn about and take pride in their community’s history, culture, and traditions, they are more like to take an active role in preserving those aspects that they love in the future (Congdon, 43).  Becoming an artist for the community can encourage students to actively engage citizens concerning environmental, communal, or governmental concerns.  Also, when specific issues or problems arise, such as homelessness, crime or drugs, students will have the cognitive resources available to them for problem solving and engaging in the search for a sensible solution (Congdon, 43).  Works of art available to the community can raise questions, state concerns, educate and engage people to consider local issues while allowing opportunities to find solutions.

Taking art into the community automatically entitles a relationship with the environment and or natural lands within or surrounding the area.  It is important to teach students that art can be more than just painting and sculpture; art involves great thought processes and many community projects especially require conversations and connections with more than just oneself.  Due to the complexity and creativity of thought that goes in to making good artwork, artists are usually very good at problem solving.  Teaching these skills to students will help them find creative solutions to environmental problems in a world where we need all the help we can get. 

One community based art program, the Anti-Graffiti Network, transformed a run-down community into an art gallery.  The purpose was to give youth the opportunity to paint murals over walls that had previously been destroyed by graffiti.  The results were remarkable.  Aside from completely renovating the look and aesthetic feel of the community, the “youth who participated in creating the murals come out of the program with improved self-esteem, strong values, and a sense of responsibility about their place in the world” (Congdon, 45). The purpose of these programs is partly to show that it is important to recognize how artists can change and influence the environment, positively or negatively.  There are also ways to implement art programs in the community based on jobs and occupations, recreation, and ethnicity (Congdon, 63).  Teaching youth and students the positive ways to affect their community help create a more livable, connected environment for everyone.

Media/pop culture
The arts in media have long been a tool for expressing opinions and demonstrating anger, grief, confusion, joy and other emotions.  Francisco de Goya painted two enormous gut-wrenching battle scenes mourning the tragedies of the Spanish Civil War; African-American “soul singers” of the mid-20th century sang of social injustices and racial pride (Southern, 517); Matthew Janczewski of ARENA dances composed a modern dance piece titled “Ugly” commenting on the cultural values of appearance and perceptions of beauty.  The artistic expressions of protest and questioning societal values are important for the general public and youth to explore and understand.  As children explore the arts as a tool for the media, they will develop a sense of the importance of clear communication skills.  Children who learn how these messages communicate values and influence behaviors and attitudes are often better equipped to cope with and understand these incoming messages (Hobbs, 15).

Current media and popular culture provide a continual input of messages about image, culture, and values in children’s lives.  They are constant consumers of television shows, commercial advertising and other visual sources, but many have no opportunities to analyze and express their opinions on the media surrounding them (Hobbs, 13).  At school, teachers and educators try as hard as they can to isolate children from the negative influences of the media, but it is almost impossible.  One way to alleviate the pressure that children may feel against these constant consumer demands is to embrace art integration and allow children to be the creators themselves in a positive setting.

Media literacy, the ability to communicate through the media, is an important concept in today’s society that students should be learning in school at an early age.  By communicating messages to one other in the classroom and throughout the school, students can practice effective information sharing methods and stay up to date on current events and relevant history lessons.  Photojournalism, computer graphics, and pictorial advertising are just a few examples of media literacy techniques (Hobbs, 16).  Renee Hobbs states three reasons why media literacy is imperative in education.  First, students will understand the importance of evaluating information from various sources in their environment and they will gain an appreciation for differing opinions of people on community, statewide, national and international levels.  Second, students will practice responsible self-expression techniques with the freedom to be creative and the task to collaborate with other students and resolve conflicts.  Finally, as students realize these connections and influences that the world has, they may be inspired to discover new sources of information and explore different ways to present their knowledge (Hobbs, 17-18).  Using media in the classroom and incorporating new methods of communication, such as cartoon drawing, website creating, or even songwriting, will truly help students develop creativity skills and understand the communication methods of the general media in everyday life.

While literature and other traditional methods of communication can indeed provide students with tools to express themselves, the arts appeal to the senses in a way that is more dramatic and attention grabbing, and the media arts provide students with up-to-date communication and creativity methods for positive interaction with society (Houser, 51).  The visual, media, and performing arts often provide that empathetic understanding from human to human that is not usually derived from scientific or more structured disciplines.  The emotions they express, the relationships they establish, the interpretations they provide, and the critiques they offer all help the creators, viewers, and participators understand the real-world messages and perspectives that are being offered.

Conclusion
The arts have been going through several waves of advocacy over the past few decades.  Most people who support the arts in education support them for life, but times of economic instability or budget cuts they often get pushed aside and considered less important. We cannot let this happen.  Art should be a fundamental aspect of every child’s education, not only in specific technique classes to develop cognitive and social capabilities, but also as an integrative subject matter to supplement and extend core curriculum subjects.  The cognitive, social, academic, psychological, communal and personal benefits clearly outweigh any possible disadvantages.   Art is so fundamental to almost every community and society, that it should be just as common in classrooms as it is in our everyday lives.  Without it, many of us would not be the same; we cannot let future generations suffer in schools or society in which the arts, no matter what form they take, are given less attention and significantly less credit than they deserve.