Arts teach students what they can achieve
Your Turn
Andy McDonough

Guest Column

Every now and again, standardized testing in public schools alerts us to some problem in our educational system. Presented with declining test scores, educators and administrators must struggle with how to remedy these problems in the face of personnel, budgetary and time constraints. Fre-quently passed over in these times of educational crisis, real or perceived, is perhaps their most valuable asset for improving the minds of our children — the arts.

It is disturbing school curriculums are being changed in response to test scores to, in some cases, double the time students spend in core curriculum classes like math, language and science at the expense of arts classes. Sadly, doubling the length of an already challenging math class does not guarantee better test results and is just as likely to put many kids — already math-phobic — off math entirely.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if motivating students to do better in their core curriculum classes was as easy as having them pick up a saxophone or paintbrush, or recite some lines on stage? While it may fly in the face of reason for the mathematically minded, it does work. Regular participation in classes in the arts is proven to build confidence and exercise the logical thinking that students need to do well in math and in society.

At a time when teaching of the arts in public schools has been pushed to its limits, we should thank the professionals who continue to teach it against all odds and consider that students who participate in the arts are four times more likely to receive an academic award, four times more likely to participate in a math or science fair, and three times more likely to receive an award for attendance.

The College Entrance Exami-nation Board continues to report that students of the arts consistently outperform their non-arts peers. In 2004, SAT-takers with coursework/experience in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 40 points higher on the math portion than students with no course work or experience in the arts. Students with music appreciation were 63 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math portion.

In many schools, where music and art have taken a back seat to other subjects, students are missing out on opportunities to learn about themselves — experiences of learning confidence and self-expression that last a lifetime.

Where other subjects teach our children a lot about the world and little about where they fit into it, the arts teaches students about themselves and what they can achieve. If any classes come close to showing students how to dream, how to be creative and think “outside the box,” it is the arts.

The arts are our children’s culture. How is it we as parents, educators and administrators, honor and celebrate artistic genius in museums and on the concert stage, and still permit it to be removed from our children’s educational experience? Is it a mistake to consider only math, science and language arts to be the “core curriculum” in public education, or do students need more? Too often, the term “electives” is taken to mean that elective classes are optional where the opposite is true.

Elective classes — especially those in the arts — provide rare opportunities for students to explore for themselves educational experiences that best fit their personality. What better preparation for life? And, what good fortune that experience in the arts can support other subjects, teach respect for cultures beyond our own and be such a positive emotional outlet.

If we don’t like our students’ performance on standardized tests, we would be wise to look past the thin indicator of test scores and instead focus on a broader picture. We should reject efforts to “unbalance” curricula as a means to attain higher test scores and ask ourselves: Do our children enjoy the confidence to approach topics aggressively? Do they apply themselves to subjects in school in a way that will “get the job done?” Do they want to excel? Do they enjoy the learning experience and express themselves by talking about it with you and other students? If we find ourselves answering no to questions like these, then perhaps it’s time to look to public education’s secret weapon — the arts. It’s proven to work.

Andy McDonough is a resident of Middletown.