The Social Influence Of Arts Education In Schools

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rts Education Math, science, and English are subjects that come to mind when one thinks of a well-rounded education. While these subjects do provide students with fundamentals, arts education is a field of study that provides many additional benefits to educators and students alike. Although many current statistics show that there are high levels of arts education programs available in elementary and secondary schools (Sparks, Zhang, & Bahr, 2015, p. 1), many of these programs are lead by general educators who had only basic arts education courses during their pursuit of an undergraduate degree. Support for arts education includes that it helps students gain skills that are beneficial in and outside of the classroom and decreases violence …show more content…
First, most studies agree that arts education helps create a happy and safe learning environment for students (Kim, 2015, p. 193). In his research, Kim also acknowledged that the arts promote creativity, critical thinking, and resilience (p. 196). Similarly, Turketo and Smith (2014) found that education in the arts helped students realize their full potential (p. 9). Although each of these articles discusses the social benefits of arts education, each of their studies is flawed. In Kim’s (2015) research, there is no information regarding the schools’ levels of violence prior to the implementation of arts courses. Additionally, the author did not include the survey that he had each participant take after their exposure to arts courses or the participants’ background information. In Turketo and Smith’s (2014) study, they did not include specific data to support their findings; however, they did provide a sufficient amount of information through the inclusion of questionnaires. Because of these flaws, each of these studies should be carefully examined; however, it is reasonable to assume that arts education has positive social benefits for …show more content…
Maguire, Mishook, Garcia, and de Gaillande (2013) expand upon this idea by discussing various academic benefits that “multiple pathways” in the arts provide, such as increased graduation rate, increased average attendance, and increased desire to attend college (pp. 21-22). The researchers found correlations between New York City schools with several arts courses and increased attendance rates, graduation rates, and desire to attend four-year colleges. The school with the most arts programs had an 88.9% attendance rate and a 58.3% graduation rate, which was higher than New York City’s total graduation rate average. Additionally, 83% of the students who attended the school with a high level of arts programs desired to attend a four-year university (Maguire et al., 2013, pp. 21-22). While Maguire et al. did support their claim that various forms of arts courses provide students with additionally tools to succeed academically, their research was limited to students in schools where arts courses were abundant. Their argument could have been further supported through the inclusion of school systems in which arts courses were