Why Should Art Be A Subject In School?
Art is absolutely essential as a subject in school, because art is what makes us human. It has endless benefits for children, yet most schools don’t have it as a subject to choose from. The focus in such cases continues to remain on STEM subjects.
When referring to art we mean not just fine arts as a subject in high school or as a hobby in secondary schools, we also mean teaching art as a tool to balance the pressure off science and commerce subjects. Art can be healing for children. Using art effectively at an early age can be highly useful for children. Let’s discuss some of the uses below.
Art balances emotions:
Art helps one express and therefore keep your emotions in check. Humans are emotional by birth. Yet over a period of time, we learn to condition ourselves to ignore our feelings and fall into the trap of untapped traumas. Most of the conditioning takes place while we are still in the education system. Then we spend most of our adult life overcoming that conditioned trauma.
Being exposed to art at a young age can help us be aware of ourselves, express and deal with our feelings in a healthy way.
2. Creativity is the highest form of intelligence:
Our frontal cortex in the brain is the hub of creativity. When the minds of musical masters were studied, a super form of intelligence was discovered. At a societal level, art and creativity enhances our intelligence. More specifically, art works on our emotional intelligence which is a highly valued and recognized skill in the corporate sector today.
3. Art increases the capacity for teamwork and leadership:
There is a common observation that art increases student engagement in classrooms. Using creativity and art based games while teaching increases the capacity of the children for teamwork and makes them better leaders.
Other benefits of art include encouraging positive behaviors and habits, helping develop language and mathematics skills.
When art is so important to human behavior, should we still be questioning why art should be taught in school as a subject?