This article states so well the life-and-death importance of the Arts in our lives. (Note that I wrote “in our lives,” not just our children’s lives.)
The author, Ronnie Sanders, a member of the Texas Commission on the Arts, describes the plethora of recent studies that map the beneficial effects of arts’ training on our brains. The neurological scientists are in agreement: whether it’s taking clarinet lessons, throwing a pot, learning tap dance, or cooperating in a theatrical performance, training in the Fine Arts triggers specific brain responses that aid in learning. Standardized testing confirms the studies.
In short, the Arts make us smarter. But here’s the quote from the article that just about knocked me off my chair:
The arts do not exist simply to perform; the arts exist to transform.
Push all that “perform” part aside. It’s the “transform” part of arts that most intrigues me. The face of a child who has witnessed his first staged play or brass-quartet in concert glows with this transformative power. So too does the look of triumph on a child who masters a technique of shading in a drawing class or the intricacies of a balletic routine at the barre.
But there’s another way people are transformed. The boon the arts bring to academic study is immeasurable. A student no longer “memorizes” dates, but envisions the color and detail of an era, hears the sounds of the popular songs that wafted through the halls of palaces, blinks at the dazzle of French Baroque chandeliers and Italian hand-blown mirrors, feels the rustle of fabrics from ladies’ dancing dresses to the Captains’ braided jackets.
Studying history through the lens of arts imprints any era on the mind. The facades of buildings and the patterns of wrought-iron gates, the intricate steps of dance that entertained in the theater and villages, the distinct topography of a battlefield transformed into an epic painting, all of these electrify the process of learning history. The student begins hearing, seeing, feeling, yes, even smelling and tasting history through the Arts.
Or, am I getting carried away? Can the arts do so much? Can they transform an academic barrier into a wave of understanding? My vote is “Yes.”
Keep writing, Mr. Sanders. You’re standing on solid ground.