• Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact

Nancy Bailey's Education Website

Revive, Rally and Recover Public Schools

  • Activism
    • Anti-Charter Schools
    • Anti-Common Core State Standards
    • Anti-Corporatization of Schools
    • Anti-High-Stakes Testing
    • State Action Groups
    • School Buildings
  • School Curriculum
    • General Education
    • Educators
    • Parents
    • Reading
    • Writing
    • Math
    • Science
    • Social Studies
    • The Arts
    • Technology
    • Behavior
    • Diversity
    • English Language Learners
    • Special Education
      • Autism
      • Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities
      • Learning Disabilities
      • Developmental Disabilities
      • Gifted
      • Other
    • Early Childhood Education
    • Elementary School
    • Middle School
    • High School
    • Student Careers
  • Other Countries
    • England
    • Finland
    • Australia
    • New Zealand
    • Canada

Art at Home, Then Put it Back In Public Schools!

June 15, 2020 By Nancy Bailey 3 Comments

Teachers teach remotely, and parents are helping students at home. Hopefully, children and teens are doing art. Self-expression is important, and art calms and leads to self-discovery. When public schools reopen, when it’s safe to do so, parents and teachers must demand a return of art education with qualified art teachers! Music and drama are critical too, but this post focuses on art classes.

Due to high stakes testing and the no excuses agenda, teaching art became obsolete especially in poor schools. Underfunded school districts removed art classes from the curriculum years ago. They pushed more reading and test preparation.

Nina Rees is President and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Rees was once a senior education policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation and helped develop NCLB. Once asked “Do you consider art and music ‘frills,’ or would you say they are necessary to good elementary education?” she answered:

It depends. If a student is attending an affluent school that has the budget to invest in such things, then I see many benefits to adding art and music courses. What I object to is focusing the attention of poor school systems on these activities. Schools should be in the business of teaching students the basics. If they fail to teach students how to read and write, it makes no sense to ask them to offer music! In a perfect world, these are decisions that I wish parents could make and pay for.

Rees implies that the arts are only for children in wealthy schools! Educators know that the arts and academics complement one another. It’s detrimental to get rid of the arts in poor schools. Children in underfunded schools deserve art as much as students in rich schools.

All children deserve access to art classes. Dedicated public school art classes bring children together. Art is important for children with disabilities, gifted, twice exceptional students, and children and teens who have anxiety or depression.

Art is critical for the joy it brings, but it helps students improve in other subjects.

  • Visual Motor Skills
  • Eye-Hand Coordination
  • Fine Motor Skills.
  • Figure-Ground Perception
  • Spatial Relationships.
  • Perseverance.
  • Nonverbal Communication
  • Creativity
  • Self Confidence
  • Focusing Skills
  • Interpretation Capability
  • Imagination
  • Ability to see Patterns
  • Measurement
  • Risk-taking

Some schools resort to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math). It’s an addition to STEM, an art project added to classwork in other subjects. Interjecting art into the curriculum is a nice touch, but it will never replace a dedicated art class with a qualified art teacher, an integral part of the curriculum.

Other schools rely on outside partnerships to fund some art, instead of no art. Or they hire artisans, not qualified teachers, to teach some art. But this is more like extra art, not a fully funded school art program.

Some cities showcase the Very Special Arts Festival, the equivalent to Special Olympics, only it’s about art. These festivals give children and adults with developmental disabilities opportunities to exhibit their art. School is where students have the best chance of learning about and doing art.

All children appreciate art. Students better understand other artists and art if they get the opportunity to do art.

Public schools must offer dedicated, fully funded art classes, with resources that support and encourage children to do art.

If nonprofit art programs like Americans for the Arts want to encourage the arts in children, they must get behind putting art classes and dedicated art teachers back into every single public school in the country! This should be their goal.

Turnaround Arts should also ensure that every child has access to a well-funded art program, with certified art teachers, in their public schools. It’s unfair to take art classes out of school and replace it in only a few schools.

This country should be able to fund the arts in all schools. School districts should not have to rely on partnerships and donations to fund art programs in public schools.

I have updated my website and added new links to The Arts found under School Curriculum on this website. If you want to share sites or information that could help with the arts please do.

Pinterest has many art ideas that might pique your student’s interest.

Do not ignore the importance of art education!

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Art, art for students with disabilities, fully fund public school art classes, pubic school art programs, qualified art teachers, teaching art, the importance of art classes in poor schools, underfunded schools

Comments

  1. Laura H. Chapman says

    June 24, 2020 at 9:11 am

    Nancy, Thank you for this excellent list of resources and for your advocacy on behalf of arts education. If you tweak the list you should point out that Americans for the Arts is the lobby for The National Endowment for The Arts and that both have trickle down policies to state arts councils. Both entries have as a major purpose promoting artists as if they are qualified teachers, but working in a gig economy, offering few classes for a fee, or a longer “residency” also for a fee. As a person who has received a life-time achievement award from the National Art Education Association (named for Elliot Eisner) and who has worked on NAEP assessments in the arts, I note that a major research report on access to instruction in the arts (in your resources) was conducted with data from 2009. You should know that a major data project is currently underway with representatives from The National Art Education Association and Americans for the Arts. In 2005, the National Endowment for the Arts had not formal policy bearing on arts education. I devoted a chapter in my book about that: (2005) INSTANT ART, INSTANT CULTURE: THE UNSPOKEN POLICY FOR AMERICAN SCHOOLS. Reston VA: National Art Education Association (“NAEA Classics Series” reprinted by permission of the author and Teachers College Press). Then and to a lesser extent now, the federal architecture for education and for the arts operate separately, and more often than not, separately from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Some frail connection with the National Science Foundation are constructed to promote STEM as STEAM..So, so far at least the federal architecture has four major silos, one each for the arts, sciences, and humanities, and one for education, with education differently regarded in the arts, sciences, and humanities.
    So cheers for the arts and for your stong and well-informed advocacy from the perspective of an EDUCATOR.

    Reply
    • Nancy Bailey says

      June 24, 2020 at 9:18 am

      Thank you, Laura, for stating this much better. I appreciate it. I will tweak it. I have been trying to better understand that whole process. I’ve known for a long time that something was wrong, and you cleared it up for me! Let me look at this closely and revise what I said. Artisans make nice visitors to demonstrate a technique, but students deserve art classrooms with art teachers. I’ll add your book title too. It sounds like a good one. Interesting summer reading on a serious issue! Thanks again!

      Reply
  2. Nancy Bailey says

    June 24, 2020 at 12:29 pm

    Thank you, Diane Ravitch!

    https://dianeravitch.net/2020/06/24/nancy-bailey-reimagine-education-by-prioritizing-the-arts-in-school/

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Follow me!

Enter your email address to subscribe to my blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

My Books

front cover

NEW BOOK!
An education glossary with an attitude.

Buy Now

front cover

Do we really want an America where we no longer own our public schools?

Buy Now

front cover

This book says “no” to the reforms that fail, and challenges Americans to address the real student needs that will fix public schools and make America strong.

Buy Now

Connect With Me!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Nancy E. BaileyFollow

Nancy E. Bailey
Retweet on TwitterNancy E. Bailey Retweeted
coopmike48Coopmike48@coopmike48·
19 Jan

Chicago teachers continues plea to Chicago Public Schools for safe school reopening plan - Chicago Sun-Times - https://chicago.suntimes.com/education/2021/1/18/22237242/ctu-teachers-union-cps-chicago-public-schools-reopening-plan-coronavirus-covid-19#new_tab

Reply on Twitter 1351593854936387585Retweet on Twitter 13515938549363875852Like on Twitter 13515938549363875851Twitter 1351593854936387585
Retweet on TwitterNancy E. Bailey Retweeted
nrookienoliwe rooks@nrookie·
18 Jan

Fully fund traditional public schools!!! https://twitter.com/chrchristensen/status/1351176316784160769

Christian Christensen@ChrChristensen

“Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.” -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. #MLKDay

Reply on Twitter 1351178360420970504Retweet on Twitter 135117836042097050427Like on Twitter 1351178360420970504142Twitter 1351178360420970504
Retweet on TwitterNancy E. Bailey Retweeted
BerniceKingBe A King@BerniceKing·
18 Jan

I love that #CorettaScottKing is trending on #MLKDay. 👏🏾

Reply on Twitter 1351217920232316929Retweet on Twitter 13512179202323169294470Like on Twitter 135121792023231692934573Twitter 1351217920232316929
Retweet on TwitterNancy E. Bailey Retweeted
cherkiescheri kiesecker@cherkies·
18 Jan

Teachers posting screenshots of children using online apps & edtech products —posting student photos, full names, grade/age, teacher and school, and sometimes login info (password!) on social media—please STOP.
#Privacy #FERPA #COPPA

Reply on Twitter 1351183829474693125Retweet on Twitter 13511838294746931253Like on Twitter 13511838294746931256Twitter 1351183829474693125
Retweet on TwitterNancy E. Bailey Retweeted
BadassTeachersABadass Teachers Asso@BadassTeachersA·
18 Jan

In order to restore students' voices we need to end the focus on high stakes standardized testing. See Nancy Bailey's six reasons why that's a good idea here:
https://nancyebailey.com/2021/01/14/6-ways-high-stakes-standardized-testing-destroys-student-voice/ #TBATs
@NancyEBailey1 .@MIBATS

Reply on Twitter 1350985258104066048Retweet on Twitter 13509852581040660488Like on Twitter 135098525810406604814Twitter 1350985258104066048
Load More...

Archives

Tag Cloud

Arne Duncan Autism Betsy DeVos Bill Gates charter schools class size Common Core Common Core covid-19 Digital Learning dyslexia early childhood education Education Secretary Betsy DeVos high-stakes testing inclusion kindergarten learning disabilities Online Learning parents Personalized Learning phonics preschool private schools privatization public schools reading Reading Instruction recess retention School Choice school libraries School Privatization school reform Social Emotional Learning special education students Students with Disabilities Teacher Preparation teachers Teach for America teaching Technology testing the arts vouchers

Copyright © 2021 Nancy E. Bailey · Web Design by HNH Marketing.