Safety commissions, school districts, PTAs, and other groups and individuals have discussed school safety. One smart move would be to ensure that every school has a legitimate arts program including visual arts, music, drama, and dance. Students who struggle with mental health problems might benefit from the arts. Every child should have access.
Students should get opportunities for daily self-expression, yet many schools pay little attention to the importance of the arts to a student’s mental health.
What if counselors and teachers were able to work together with art and music teachers to ensure that students find help through the arts? What if the arts were valued in the curriculum to provide this support? What if all children were expected to take art or music classes at every grade level?
While it’s not completely understood, it’s easy to find research that indicates the importance of the connection between the arts and mental health. Here, Stuckey and Nobel in the American Journal of Public Health, question why more isn’t being done to explore art and music intervention to reduce “physiological and psychological outcomes.”
Art and health have been at the center of human interest from the beginning of recorded history. Despite that fact, and despite the invested effort and growth of knowledge and understanding in each arena, it is interesting that we often still find ourselves struggling with the “fundamentals” of art and health and their meaning in society. We make no attempt to clarify or resolve these fundamental issues. Instead, our intent is to summarize current knowledge about the connection between art and health, identify the most compelling next steps for investigation, and generate further interest in researching the complexities of art and health. Legitimate research questions include whether certain art-based therapies are more or less effective than others, whether the impact of therapy can be tied to other important variables and preconditions, and whether health benefits are sustained or short term. These issues deserve vigorous continued attention.
How is this done when public schools have eliminated or reduced the arts especially in poorer schools? The arts still receive little priority. This is unfortunate because the arts could be therapeutic for all students, especially for children with emotional and behavioral difficulties. More study is needed to determine how the arts affect students and their mental health.
We know that many students grapple with depression. Student suicides, we’re told, are up. Teens and even elementary children feel alienated. When students fail to do well academically, or they become bored, feelings of hopelessness are a threat. But the arts could have a far-reaching effect. The arts might give hope to students who are otherwise despondent. The arts not only provide balance to the curriculum, but to life!
Even in the best public schools, however, students with academic or behavioral difficulties may find the arts out of reach. Here is a report from The Guardian. This happens here too. A teacher describes how students are so overscheduled with academics there is no time for the arts.
Here are some facts about art education:
- Public school art and music programs have been defunded for years.
- Schools create AP art and music classes that are more about raising class rankings than helping students create.
- The arts might be included in general classes. Incorporating the arts into other subjects should be encouraged, but this will never adequately replace real art classes that teach the arts.
- Poor schools often have patchwork art programs with artisans that come in for workshops. But this is not a substitute for real art classes.
- Many certified art teachers have lost their positions. While artisans have much to offer students, they should not replace credentialed art teachers.
- Music programs have diminished. Some schools have eliminated marching bands. Some claim that the purchase of iPads replaces funding band programs.
- Schools might rely on partnerships for funding which are not consistent. Not all schools get partnerships. Relying on outside funding is another way to privatize public education.
Here is how a strong arts program can help students.
- Drawing distracts students from their problems. Drawing can help children regulate emotions and assist with depression (Drake & Winner, 2013).
- Acting not only helps students with self-expression, but to be more empathetic. It can also be used to counteract bullying.
- Making music or listening to music lifts a student’s spirits.
- The arts can be a wonderful outlet for students with all kinds of disabilities and gifted students. The arts have the power to equalize children and their abilities.
- The arts can bring students together. It’s the best collaboration. Think choir, band, drawing murals, etc.
- The arts bring joy into a student’s world.
- When a child fails in school, their life can spiral out of control. They might cause disciplinary problems. Often at the heart of such behavior is a student craving attention. If such a student gets an art or music class they could transfer their interest into creating and obtaining recognition for something positive.
Parents who are financially able, search for afterschool art and music programs. Lucky students get drawing, music, or drama classes outside of school, unless they have so much homework there’s no room in their schedules. But too many children get no art, music, drama, or dance.
In today’s fearful school atmosphere, the arts might be the safety net for students who don’t feel they belong. All schools should include a variety of programs that focus on the arts. It is time to make the curriculum whole again. A student’s mental health might depend on it.
Reference
Jennifer E. Drake and Ellen Winner. “How Children Use Drawing to Regulate their Emotions. ” Cognition and Emotion. 27(3), 512-520.
A Few Other Posts About the Arts and Mental Health
How Losing the Arts in Public Schools Hurts Students and Their Future Careers. May 7, 2014.
What Happens to Artists Who Aren’t Good Readers? February 10, 2016.
The Theft of the Tradition of Music in OUR Public Schools. May 28, 2016.
Piecemeal Privatization of Arts and Music in Public Schools. April 16, 2017
Addressing Mental Health in Children During Trying Times. August 14, 2017.
The Lost Joy of Putting On a Play: What Children Miss in a “No Excuses World.” October 27, 2017
Margaret Rink says
Art saved me because I had a reading problem,, school would have been miserable with out art .
Nancy Bailey says
Thank you for sharing, Margaret. I actually listed a post about that. When I taught students with learning disabilities, quite a few were gifted in the arts and succeeded in those classes. We all have strengths and weaknesses, but schools need to reinstate strong art programs. I am glad you had the arts!
LisaM says
I agree, but the best thing we can do for children is return kindergarten to it’s original format……learning through play. Let’s give 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders unstructured recess so that they learn how to play cooperatively and constructively. Conflict resolution learned in the early years leads to teens who are able to control their anger and problem solve without the use of force (of course there will always be the bully who will need to be challenged!). We no longer have community schools….we have test prep centers with content deliverers, garnering data for the free market….sounds so bleak (and it is!).
Nancy Bailey says
I agree that kindergarten has been corrupted! I have written about the importance of play and the overuse of standardized testing, and pushing reading too soon for this grade. But it can never be said enough, Lisa. So thank you!
Sheila Resseger says
Thank you for this post, Nancy. I wholeheartedly agree that children crave the arts, music, dance, and drama, and thrive when they are given the opportunity to express themselves and to work on group projects as well. Beyond all the reasons you gave for including the arts in schools, another is to bring beauty and joy into children’s lives. When I was teaching middle school deaf students whose reading level was barely first grade, I would provide them with beautifully illustrated picture books. These books had powerful messages that the students could identify with, and the pictures captured their attention. Some of them also had great artistic skill and enjoyed drawing on the smartboard and captioning their work. One of my proudest moments as a teacher was when a student I had as a 14 year old, who had been in the school since age 4 and had made barely any progress as a reader, showed off his artwork to his mother during Open House, and read the words of the story for her. Contrast this with taking a computerized multiple choice reading assessment. no comparison
Nancy Bailey says
What a lovely moment that must of been for his mom and the child! Not to mention you. How did this country ever permit the removal of the arts? School curriculum is not whole! Thank you, Sheila!
Roy Turrentine says
The arts are vital. Not just visual art, but drama, music, creative writing, and a multitude of visual arts are the most vital thing for the climate of the school. An anecdote:
Our school was once a rural k-12. Sports was the only funded order of the day, and that only sparingly, for rural schools, like inner city schools, are the last on the list. As we began to grow due to suburban expansion, we started to have many discipline problems, especially from students who were not able to make the teams. My former principal recounts how discipline problems dropped the year we finally got band. We have also added visual arts in later years.
Even at that, our school dies not support the arts, primarily because we are not funded to. The community attitude is still mired in the days when people saw the benefit of sports but nothing else. As our community diversifies, the arts become more important. While band is important, it features to much marching and not enough music. There is no research to suggest marching as a way to develop those neurons. And what of ballet and dance? Expression is multifaceted.