In
recent years, school curriculum in India has shifted heavily toward common core
subjects of reading, English, Science and Maths, but what about the Arts?
Although some may regard art education as a luxury, simple creative activities
are some of the building blocks of child development. Learning to create and
appreciate visual imaging or thinking analysis may be more important than ever
to the development of the next generation of children as they grow up.
Benefits
of teaching Arts to child in school:
1.
Motor Skills:
Many of
the motions involved in making art, such as holding a paintbrush or scribbling
with a crayon, are essential to the growth of fine motor skills in young
children.
According
to the National Institutes of Health, developmental milestones around age three
should include drawing a circle and beginning to use safety scissors. Around
age four, children may be able to draw a square and begin cutting straight
lines with scissors. Many pre - school programs emphasize the use of scissors
because it develops the dexterity children will need for writing.
2. Language
Development:
For
very young children, making art—or just talking about it—provides opportunities
to learn words for colors, shapes and actions. When toddlers are as young as a
year old, parents can do simple activities such as crumpling up paper and
calling it a “ball.”
By
elementary school, students can use descriptive words to discuss their own
creations or to talk about what feelings are elicited when they see different
styles of artwork.
3. Decision
Making:
According
to a report by Americans for the Arts, art education strengthens
problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. The experience of making
decisions and choices in the course of creating art carries over into other
parts of life. If they are exploring and thinking and experimenting and trying
new ideas, then creativity has a chance to blossom.
4. Visual
Learning:
Drawing,
sculpting with clay and threading beads on a string all develop visual-spatial
skills, which are more important than ever. Even toddlers know how to operate a
smart phone or tablet, which means that even before they can read, kids are
taking in visual information.
This
information consists of clues that we get from pictures or three-dimensional
objects from digital media, books and television.
“Parents
need to be aware that children learn a lot more from graphic sources now than
in the past,” says human psychology studies.
“Children
need to know more about the world than just what they can learn through text
and numbers. Art education teaches students how to interpret, criticize, and
use visual information, and how to make choices based on it.”
Knowledge
about the visual arts, such as graphic symbolism, is especially important in
helping kids become smart consumers and navigate a world filled with marketing
logos.
5. Inventiveness:
When
kids are encouraged to express themselves and take risks in creating art, they
develop a sense of innovation that will be important in their adult lives.
“The
kind of people society needs to make it move forward are thinking, inventive
people who seek new ways and improvements, not people who can only follow
directions,” says human psychology researches “Art is a way to encourage the process and the
experience of thinking and making things better!”
6. Cultural
Awareness:
As we
live in an increasingly diverse society, the images of different groups in the
media may also present mixed messages.
Teaching
children to recognize the choices an art designer makes in portraying a subject
helps kids understand the concept that what they see may be someone’s
interpretation of reality.
7. Improved Academic
Performance:
Studies
show that there is a correlation between art and other achievement. A report by
child psychology doctors, for the Arts states that young people who participate
regularly in the arts (three hours a day on three days each week through one
full year) are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement,
to participate in a maths and science fair or to win an award for writing an
essay or poem than children who do not participate.
CASE STUDY:
In Indian festivals,
children are encouraged to wear cultural dress in ancient endeavor style, purpose
of dressing (what students learn?) – History, Music, Norms, Human Values, Arts and
Science, and cultural activities.
Here is the picture
of mine representing Lord Krishna playing flute in school days.
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