Dear Principal of my elementary school,

 

              I recognize that you may have concerns with the arts in your elementary school. I am writing this letter to show you why the arts are so important to the elementary school student and to clarify the state regulations concerning the arts at the elementary school level.

First I must say that art is not just art. According to the Champions of Change reports, children that are in a higher emphasis on arts “perform better in creativity, fluency, originality, elaboration and resistance to closure then those that are in low arts groups.” Lois Hetland and Ellen Winner discovered while writing and researching their 2007 book, Studio Thinking in five visual arts classrooms in two Boston area schools during one year that “While students in art classes learn techniques specific to art, such as how to draw, how to mix paint, or how to center a pot, they’re also taught a remarkable array of mental habits not emphasized elsewhere in schools.” Some of these remarkable arrays of mental habits were observing, envisioning, innovating, and reflecting. According to David Perkins, Senior Co-director of Harvard University’s Project Zero, these abilities that children learn in art at a young age help develop children’s intelligence.

             Arts can also help students in their future jobs. When looking through a viewfinder, the students learn to focus in onto a certain area and observe. This is something that is encouraged by the visual arts and is needed for some future careers like naturalists, climatologists, writers, and doctors. Visual arts help students see images in their minds that help them solve problems and create new ideas. These skills are necessary in the careers of architects, chemists and inventors.  “As skillful educators have found, teaching students to be creative is a deliberate process, much like teaching students to be literate or to be able to solve mathematics problems. It takes more than simply handing out materials; expert teachers break down the creative process to enable students to identify the problem, gather relevant information, try out solutions, and validate those that are effective.”

You stated that art is not required for the elementary student. The state of Texas recognizes that art is a core academic subject and has certain policies, certifications and requirements for the arts and teachers who teach art. Due to the fact that Texas does define the arts in statue or code as a core or academic subject means that there is an arts education instructional requirement for the elementary school which further means that the state requires districts or schools to provide or offer arts instruction in one or more arts disciplines at the elementary school level. The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills that was adopted in 1998 states that all academic disciplines, including fine arts, are required of school districts when providing instruction. (Arts Education Partnership , 2012) “As per Chapter 74 of the Texas Administrative Code, Texas school districts that offer grades K-5 must provide instruction in art, music, and theatre at each elementary school grade level.” (Arts Education Partnership , 2012).  

            You may wonder why you need an art teacher to teach this core subject when general teachers could just incorporate arts into their lessons. The state of Texas has a Licensure Requirements for Non-Arts Generalist Teachers in which the state specifies arts requirements for initial licensure or certification of generalist classroom (non arts) teachers (Arts Education Partnership , 2012). The state certification examination for elementary school generalist classroom teachers includes topics related to fine arts education (Arts Education Partnership , 2012). While teachers who go through the certification process are required to take a course related to fine arts education, I believe that this is not enough time for teachers to learn all of the aspects of a subject. You would not hire someone that has taken one science class in their entire college career to teach all of science. The fact is that the teachers are not educated enough to create a comprehensive art curriculum that teaches the students the basics of what they need to know specially since art is ingrained within our species as a whole. Considering that most of these teachers have little to no background in studio arts and have none of the skills or knowledge of art techniques, how can you ask them to teach a student art? Again, how would a teacher who has never had any formal training in the immense amount of media available in art be able to have an organized and informative class period? There are techniques that you cannot just learn in one class at the college level. Being an art teacher is more then just passing out materials. As an art teacher, you are giving the students examples of your own experience of creating art and giving them suggestions based on this experience. I ask how could a teacher that has never picked up a brush or worked with clay before teach their students techniques and skills that they themselves do not know or have?

 

Works Cited 

Arts Education Partnership . (2012). AEP-Art policy and Report Generator . Retrieved 2012 йил 10-oct from Arts Education Partnership : http://www.aep-arts.org/wp-content/DatabaseSupport/StatePolicyReportPopWindow.php

Arts Education Partnership . (2012). State of States 2012 Arts Education State Policy Summary . Retrieved 2012 йил 10-Oct from Arts Educaiton partnership : http://www.aep-arts.org/research-policy/state-policy-database/state-policy-summary-2012/

arts education partnership. (n.d.). Champion of Change Report . From arts education partnership.

E Tools 4 education . (n.d.). EC 12 Art . From E Tools 4 education : http://www.online-distance-learning-education.com/ec-12art.html