Benefits:
| express yourself |
| thinking differently |
| Engaged students |
| Imagination |
| Less rote teaching |
| Envision abstract |
| child-centered learning |
| gives creative and artistic kids a chance to have fun in an academic class |
| makes subjects more interesting/fun |
| motivates students to engage in class |
| stimulates mind |
| creates student confidence |
| helps enforce the lesson |
| working cooperatively |
| fun/pleasure |
| Think about the thinking process |
Challenges:
| Lack of funds |
| Lack of time |
| Lack of teacher appreciation for art |
| Lack of teacher motivation / teacher doesn’t want to put forth the effort |
| Lack of knowledge |
| too messy |
| school district demands |
| parents disagree |
| NCLB law – push on tested subjects |
| Criteria for grading |
| not enough resources |
| may not think its important |
| teacher isn’t prepared to teach art |
The following are a list of sources they have been reading and viewing about the topic:
Arts and Smarts Article
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/greatergood/2009winter/Evans353.php
Arts Appear to Play Role in Brain Development
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.arts18may18,0,1345340.story
Article in Washington Post about Art Integration at a Local Elementary School
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/03/06/ST2008030601398.html
Jerome Kagan on Why the Arts Matter
http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21740
Why We Make Art
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/greatergood/2009winter/QandA.php
Dan Pink’s Pop!Tech Podcast
http://www.poptech.com/popcasts/popcasts.aspx?lang=&viewcastid=158
Ken Robinson’s TED Talk – Do Schools Kill Creativity?
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Leslie Gates 