The arts classes are always a big part of school when I was child in elementary school. It seems that each year, the arts classes are being taken out of schools either for budget reasons, or the students’ lack of interest in these subjects. But as much as the arts may not seem to play a big role in students' education, the art has a way of teaching students aspects of their lives that will not be covered in their daily courses.
Dance can be used in the schools to teach students about it's history, how to move their bodies, moving to a beat, and become rhythmically inclined. Moving to music allows students to express themselves in a different manor other than speaking. It forms a different channel of communication and has been as aspect of communication well before verbal or written communication existed. With the experience of dance education, students are able to be creative and express meaning in their world. They are able to gain kinesthetic abilities in learning dance as well as learning a series of movements, choreography, and teaches them self-discipline. According to the NCSCOS, students will also learn about different cultures and places in dance class and through this they will be able to help people connect throughout the different cultures. Any subject area such as language arts, science, social studies, and mathematics can be incorporated into dance material that students would be learning in the classroom. Dance allows the physical, emotional, social, intellectual, and aesthetic development of children. By creating dances and routines, students develop their own ideas of creativity and gain respect in doing so for themselves. Students are given a chance to be hands-on in the learning experience which is not always the case is other subjects.
Music is another form of the arts that gives students the opportunity to be hands on and creative. In grades K-2, the music program focuses on encouraging the students to use their natural enthusiasm for music. Students are just being introduced to different instruments and the structure of the instruments. Singing, playing instruments, moving, careful listening, and involvement engage the students. Students are able to learn how to care for instruments and develop an understanding for their own musical abilities. The basic musical elements are explained and demonstrated to the young students as well. Music is an excellent way to integrate other courses into lessons. For example, teaching students about Mozart is a great way to develop history ideas and concepts in music. Mathematics is also incorporated through patterns, counting, and grouping.
As a student in elementary school, music was always my favorite class. I began learning the basics of music in kindergarten throughout second grade and learned to play the recorder (boy my parents loved hearing me squeak on that thing throughout the house!). Music quickly became an important interest of mine and my teacher encouraged me to continue music class in 3rd grade. I chose to play the clarinet in third and fourth grade at my elementary school in NY and joined the beginning band class. When my family and I moved to NC, I was in 5th grade. I chose to continue my music career in my new elementary school. In my new school, I noticed that my music teacher took her job to another level. She pushed practicing on the students, but made the music class fun and engaging! The more I practiced the more I enjoyed moving onto more challenging levels of music. I continued playing the clarinet in middle school and in my high school marching band as well. Music had a huge impact on my school career and I ended up playing the clarinet for 9 years. I met many friends in marching band, some of which are my closest friends to this day. I saw music as a way to escape my hard classes that were not always my strongest areas of interest. Music class was fun for me because of the teachers that pushed me to do well and made me succeed in music. I learned to play many instruments throughout my years of being in a band class and traveled across the east coast performing in competitions with my school. Band class was fun, and sometimes that’s all it may take for students to want to succeed. Below I have included a picture of myself in marching band, 9th grade:
After researching ideas on the topic of keeping the arts classes in schools, I found the following website http://www.keepartsinschools.org/Research/index.php . This website provides news and resources that encourage keeping the arts classes in schools across America. Within this website, I found a quote that particularly stood out to me. I felt that it summed up the importance of art, dance, theater, and music classes for elementary school students. Although the quote focuses on music specifically, there are all types of abilities that students learn from the arts classes specifically.
"Music is all about the structural connections that are used to support memory. It's much easier to remember something that follows a familiar structure or pattern than something random and unfamiliar. These familiar structures serve as the foundation for building greater knowledge and even stronger and more extensive neural networks that support learning of all kinds."
As I read the quote above, I realized just how important it is to give students to opportunity to take these classes in school and the everyday knowledge that they can learn from the classes. I also thought about how easy it would be to include aspects of these classes into my social studies lessons in the future. Students could act out scenarios, sing the 50 states, and move to the music of the 50 states song. Including the arts in my class room would not be difficult and for the benefits of my students, I intend to do so. :)
