Crysta Parks English 1312 December 3, 2011

Drawing a Path to Art Smarts

. In 2002 the No Child Left Behind act was put into place, and is still going on to this day. Its intent is to enhance the knowledge of children by spending more time on subjects such as reading, writing, and math. In order for this to happen the Arts were depleted. The Arts are a vital tool in enhancing our childrens education and should be incorporated into the No Child Left Behind act instead of taken away.

Now, the soul point of the No Child Left Behind act is to give more time to these curriculum given above. I am not saying to take time away from these curriculums to add the arts, but to incorporate them into the learning process. Use music to teach math, Theater to teach history, or even use drawings and paintings when reading to illustrate what may be going on or what the children may think is going on.

So many children nowadays are becoming bored with school. It shows in their grades and behavior, to the point of where some children just stop going to school altogether. According to Ann Hulbert in a comment made by Obama says, That children who learn music actually do better in math, and that children whos imaginations are sparked by the arts are more engaged in school. Adding the arts into their curriculum will inspire children to join in, be creative, imaginative, and be better able to memorize what is being taught.

Think back to when you were young, wouldnt history have been much more interesting if we had acted it out instead of just reading it from a thick heavy book? The same can be said for other subjects as well. In math singing is a good way to help children memorize formulas and equasions, it also helps to better visualize the math problem in a different form so that the problems are better understandable. For instance, using pie charts and imagery when teaching fractions can better help establish the problem for the child in their mind. Then in reading, illustrating what one has read can be very helpful and make it so

that children are more engaged in what they are reading. My sister is one of the few children out their who does not like to read or cant visualize what is going on within the story and gets frustrated. Drawing images of what may be going on within a chapter will give the children an opportunity to get involved with what their reading while at the same time having fun, do not forget however, that theater could play its role here as well.

The arts are very much needed in our childrens curriculum and I implore everyone, go to your nearest school and tell the school board that the arts are necessary! That in order to enhance the minds of the children we need the arts for creativity, imagination, communication, and memorization, with out witch our children will wither away. Go online to www.letssavethearts.com/ and support the arts or provide fundraisers to help save them in our schools and start drawing a path to art smarts.

References

[Art education image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.googleimages.com

Beautiful child enjoying his painting. (December 26, 2009). Retrieved from http://www.googleimages.com

Ed.gov. (n.d.). Elementary and secondary education act. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/esea

Hulbert, A. (2008, April 27). Drawing lessons. New York times magazine, 1. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.

[No child left behind act cartoon image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.googleimages.com