Why Arts in Education?
Why Promote Arts in Education?
In a nutshell: Exposure to the arts develops in our children creative thinking, problem solving abilities, and skills for meaningful expression of ideas.
Did you know that children who receive an education in the Arts (Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Dance, and Creative Writing) typically score higher on standardized exams?
The Arts develop in students a higher level of learning. Incorporation of the Arts provides a powerful motivational tool, enabling students to achieve a deeper understanding of language arts, math, science, and social studies.
photo: carf
Additional benefits of integration in the arts include:
- Students develop learning patterns for critical thinking.
- The Arts reach students with various learning styles and intelligences.
- Students are able to make an emotional connection to the content (particularly useful for teaching history).
- Students become abstract thinkers and understand deeper meaning of subject content.
- Students kinetically experience concepts rather than, or in addition to, simply reading about and discussing them.
- Students who have been educated in the Arts are better prepared for a competitive job market.
- Motivation to learn! Older students have told me that they chose to come to school because of our workshops.
As a Teaching Artist and member of the SC Arts Commission Artist Roster, it has been my pleasure to teach visual and theater arts through puppetry in the classroom for over a decade. My workshops are tailor designed for each school to teach both artistic concepts and techniques, as well as other core academic curriculum standards through connections to the arts. Your students design and construct original and exiting characters based on puppetry genre from all around the world. They discover the historical connections and influences of world cultures which produced the stylistic theater of Japanese Bunraku and Kabuki, spectacular Vietnamese Water Puppetry, mesmerizing Indonesian Shadow, delightful European Marionette, and so many more!
Take a moment to enjoy a few examples of recent student works in my photo gallery, then contact me to find out how a puppet theater workshop will benefit your school or group. All grade levels are included - even your high school students will not be bored. Lesson plans for projects are age appropriate. Tell me your teaching objectives and I will design a workshop tailored for you and your students.
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. ~Pablo Picasso
