The Importance Of Arts Education

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“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. . . . I get most joy in life out of my violin.” –Albert Einstein (Calaprice 237). Music, Art, Theater; these forms of expression and creation have long been held in high esteem by some of the greatest and most intelligent men and women ever to walk the earth. If the brightest among us often praise the arts and attribute many of their great successes to them, then why is involving them in education a question? Arts education is always the first of any schools program to be cut when the budget is running thin. Why is this? What is it about the arts that make them any less valuable than other subjects…show more content…
I have struggled all my life with school attendance as I never enjoyed school because I did not see the point in relearning the same information day in and day out for years. Thus my attendance has suffered through all my years of school. The only reason I went to school on some days was my chorus class. I have loved music all my life. I am a singer and guitarist and I enjoy all forms of music form modern to classical and even more ancient forms of music such as madrigals and modal chorales. I looked forward to my chorus class daily and I always enjoyed learning new pieces and the sense of camaraderie that I shared with each member of the chorus. This is why I argue so passionately about the importance of arts education. Although I make good grades, without arts education I doubt I could have made it through middle school let alone all the way to my senior year in high school. It is thanks to these important and immeasurable experiences that I have that I say that the arts and their positive benefits, not their secondary effects on other subjects; need to be a part of every student’s curriculum. There is an excellent quote that masterfully expresses the arts that I will now share from Hetland and Winner, authors of Harvard’s Project Zero. “Let’s remember why societies have always included the arts in every child’s education. The reason is simple. The arts are a fundamentally important part of culture, and an education without them is an impoverished education leading to an impoverished society. Studying the arts should not have to be justified in terms of anything else. The arts are as important as the sciences: they are time-honored ways of learning, knowing, and expressing.” (Winner and Hetland

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