Transformative Education Through the Arts

Julie Owen is a public school parent in Jackson, MS and active with Ask for More Arts, a local school-community arts partnership advocating quality education for all children by integrating the arts into classroom teaching and learning.  Julie is also active in the Jackson chapter of Parents for Public Schools, which serves as the convening partner of Ask for More Arts.  Check out Julie's blog at Casey Arts.

From tiny white eggs found on the leaves of milkweed in a large pasture in Jackson, Mississippi, my family is rescuing and raising 6 monarch butterflies.  Now that some of the caterpillars are well on their eating and growing journey, it is our job to keep their containers clean, feed them from the stash of harvested milkweed leaves in our refrigerator, and release the butterflies into the world when they emerge from their chrysalises.  These caterpillars need our help because they are under threat from predatory insects such as fire ants.  Habitat loss is making the milkweed plant, the only plant that monarch caterpillars eat and on which they lay their eggs, harder to find.

Just as every monarch caterpillar needs milkweed to survive and transform into a monarch butterfly, all children in our nation need a quality education in order to become engaged, productive, creative, thoughtful, and innovative citizens in our communities. As parents and citizens, it is our duty to care for and nurture our nation’s children not only by providing for their basic needs but by supporting our teachers, public schools, policy makers, and governments in providing a quality education for all children regardless of economic status, race, or culture.  Our children and some of our nation’s public schools are under threat from inadequate funding and resources, dwindling or poor community support, and curriculums that do not meet the needs of children with diverse learning styles.

As a parent of children in public education and as an arts education advocate, I believe children in our nation’s public schools need curriculums rich in the arts to help them discover their unique gifts and open transformative possibilities.  Arts integrated learning works because children have unique ways in which they learn best and in which they may be challenged to grow.  A school that uses the arts to teach core academic subjects such as reading, writing, math, social studies, and science will reach more children to help them succeed because more styles of learning are nurtured and encouraged.

My daughter’s school has a bulletin board in the front entrance that explains to all visitors why it is an arts integration school.  Arts education makes learning fun and relevant to student’s lives.  Arts education contextualizes learning across disciplines.  Students who participate in the arts develop stronger interpersonal skills, encouraging empathy for others and increasing understanding of diversity.  The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.  The arts provide new challenges for students considered already successful and help build confidence in children who struggle with core curriculum areas but may be very talented in an arts area.  The arts enable children to have experiences they can have from no other source.

As an involved parent, I have seen children experience all of the above positive aspects of arts integrated learning and teaching.  My daughter has used drama and pantomime to explore concepts of place and community in social studies and history.  She has painted and collaged to learn and reinforce multiplication and fractions.  She has read and written poetry to learn about science, and she has developed writing skills through photography.  Through arts integrated instruction, she is receiving the tools, strategies, and experiences she needs to flourish, dream, imagine, question, and succeed.

As a parent and citizen of this country, I want all children to have an education that challenges, nurtures, encourages, and transforms.  All children deserve the opportunity to discover their talents, turn their weaknesses into abilities, and build upon their strengths.  Through arts integrated education, our nation’s public schools can become the chrysalises that will transform lives and give children the wings necessary for learning, achievement, and flight.