Did you know that the second week in September is National Arts in Education week? Mybirthday is September 18th, so at least in 2009 I could have celebrated my bday and thelast day of Arts in Education week. For 2011 it’s September 11-17th.
The arts are an essential part in everyone’s education (thanks NEA). My scope was narrow until I starteddoing some research- I was only thinking about visual arts, but poetry, music, singing,acting- they all apply. There are so so many avenues for people to express themselvescreatively, and it’s awesome to read about teachers, other artists and government workerstrying to do what I will be doing shortly- revitalizing art education. I came across two more sites, one from the US Department of Education, and the second is from the NationalEducation Association. The DOE had a great bit of info from a study on it’s page-
“Moreover, the UCLA researchers found the students engaged in the arts were more likely to be employed in jobs with potential career growth and more involved in volunteerism and the political life of their communities. “These are big effects … [that] we would like to see more schools replicate,” says Secretary Duncan.”
The NEA page has some great links for you to check out as well.
US Department of Education page- “Rethinking and Strengthening Arts Education –
http://www.ed.gov/blog/2010/09/rethinking-and-strengthening-arts-education/
National Education Association page- National Arts in Education week-
http://www.nea.org/tools/40878.htm
