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Why we should put Art at the heart of education

artteachjess

For over 73000 years Art has been a fundamental part of being human.

Art plays a crucial role in our ability to understand ourselves and the world around us. According to many anthropologists art is part of what makes us human, it’s a fundamental part of who we are.

It enhances other subject areas, by adding depth, visuals, nuance, it can help embed understanding through visual and social cues.  Art, craft and design education is a building block of social cohesion. It underpins our cultures, the economy and is vital for personal development, for health and wellbeing.

I don’t think there’s any surprise in the correlation between arts reduction in timetabling  and the  rise in mental health issues in young people. Overemphasis on exams and the low status of art and expressive subjects gives students little outlet through which to learn how to express and regulate themselves. 

James Catterall, leading professor and Chair of the Faculty at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, has studied 12,000 students over twelve years. His research demonstrates that involvement in the arts (both Visual Art and Performing Art) – especially for students from a low-income background – is associated with higher levels of attainment in both high school and university. Catterall also notes that studying the arts can have other positive benefits such as greater involvement in community service.

Art strengthens focus and increases attention, develops hand-eye coordination, requires practice and strategic thinking, and involves interacting with the material world through different tools and art mediums. Arts in school are a crucial ingredient in the making of UK’s creative life – one of the nation’s USPs. But artists, musicians, writers and actors are not born skilled. Most creative professionals can trace the igniting of their creativity back to experiences at school, whether it was encouragement from a school art teacher, acting in a play or singing a particular piece of music at school. They all talk with passion of the influence a particular teacher had in inspiring them to develop their creativity and follow a creative career. 

Visual language is universal. 

I was lucky as a child my parents were artistic, still are, so I was exposed to the variants of visual language from an early age. But I know many are not so lucky. Someone close to me was raised in a house that was ambivalent about art, a family that were very traditional in terms of relationships and hierarchy, where emotions were disregarded and unspoken and children were seen but not heard. 

This person struggled as a child and their one outlet was Art, their parents didn’t respect their passion and dismissed it but they carried on regardless. As their parents marriage fell apart art became the route through the turmoil of their life and to this day is still the rock in their life that provides safety and gives them an expressive outlet. 

For me, Art gave me a window into other worlds and minds, it helped broaden my understanding of humanity. It also taught me discipline, patience and resilience. Making art can be and should be v challenging, mistakes happen, things go wrong, you get through this and can create amazing things. That feels wonderful! 

As an art teacher I can see the real value that art brings to students lives and learning, it adds to the richness and depth of their understanding of themselves and the world around them. There are no right or wrong answers in Art, mistakes are a valid part of the creative process, it can provide a safe and a challenging space for students to work in, to be in, to explore their sense of self and their perception of the world.

In no way do I think art needs to be hierarchically elevated above any other subject, or replace anything that currently happens in schools, but curriculum managers need to embrace it and ensure it’s equity with other subjects. Being at the heart of the curriculum delivery would ensure it can be interwoven with all other aspects of learning. Students often ask me how I know so many things, it’s due to my love of art, by exploring the world and it’s components I understand art more deeply, and by understanding art more deeply I understand the world better. It’s a symbiotic process. Art explores every topic under the sun. I often challenge students on a gallery visit to find an artwork I cannot relate to the topic we’re studying. I’m still waiting for a student to find that artwork! 

As the creative industries move into first place to be the fastest growing economic sector in the UK, contributing £10.8billion a year to the UK economy and provides more than 363,700 jobs; Creative subjects are not being included in the Ebacc means that there is often only one creative option choice available to students and many do not study anything creative beyond KS3. So where will our future creative talent come from? 

How can we best serve the needs of our students if we continue to allow this to happen, our creatively minded students deserve better. They deserve to be able to study a subject that is deemed just as important as any other, that is valued in and of itself as well as due to all the other points highlighted today. 

Whatever phase of education you work, and whatever subject you teach, I ask you to look at how your students and your teaching could and would benefit from being enriched by art in some way.

Some suggestions for starting points for making art or talking about art:

  • Explore the world
  • Investigate other ways of being
  • Add new dimensions to understanding
  • Link historical understanding
  • Illustrate complex knowledge
  • Stimulate the imagination
  • Explore boundaries
  • Instigate discussions/debate

What holds you back?  What could you do to feel more confident about using art/making art in your leaning plans? 

Where can you get resources/inspiration?

Published by artteachjess

"Each of us has a spark in life inside us, and our highest endeavor ought to be to set off that spark in one another." Kenny Ausubel Having taught art for over 27 years, been passionate about art and its fundamental role in society since birth and trained others to teach for twenty five years I am passionate about pedagogy and how we can support and nurture young minds and create citizens ready and equipped for life in the 21st century.

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