Arts Education Deserves a Hand

Art classes are often candidates for the chopping block when money gets tight, which has caused researchers to look into art’s educational benefits in an attempt to change the way such classes are viewed.

Two such researchers, Brian Kisida of the University of Missouri and Daniel H. Bowen of Texas A&M University, did a controlled trial with 42 elementary and middle schools in Houston, Texas, and here’s how they described, in part, what they found: “Randomly assigning arts educational opportunities reduces disciplinary infractions, improves writing achievement, and increases students’ emotional empathy. Students in elementary schools, which were the primary focus of the program, also experience increases in school engagement, college aspirations, and cognitive empathy.” They called their results “strong evidence that the arts can produce meaningful impacts on students’ academic outcomes and social-emotional development.”

Hmmm. Something for policy and budget creators to bear in mind. The study was published last fall in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management l

They Should Drop by Sometime

There is clearly a tragic disconnect between the needs of America’s public schools and the resources legislators across the states are providing…I wish the people who make the laws which allocate and distribute state funding for public schools were required to spend one day every year visiting a public school to watch what teachers do. In fact, I wish every state legislator were required to undertake the challenge of teaching in a public elementary, middle, or high school for at least half of one school day every year.l

— Jan Resseger, former chair of the National Council of Churches Committee on Public Education