Arts Education in the United States.

Arts education is the learning and instruction of the arts; it includes but is not limited to performing arts like dance, music, theater, and visual arts like drawing, painting, sculpture and design works.Budget cuts implemented by the federal government show that in the last few years have lost billions of dollars and will continue to lose more. President Trump has decided to decrease the education funding, it is projected to be at least a 10.5% decrease just within this year. Music programs are constantly in danger of being cut from shrinking school budgets, even though they're proven to improve academics.

Arts education in the United States public schools is in a downward trend. As we continue to make budget cuts, we continue to compromise the capabilities, test scores, and mental health of students.

To be successful, students need to be thinkers, problem solvers, possess people skills, demonstrate creativity, and the arts provide all of these. Engagement in the fine arts helps students stretch their minds beyond the boundaries of the printed text or the rules of what is provable.

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The College Board has conducted five research projects to see what is necessary to ensure students the most success in college and their future and affirm the place of arts education in a balanced core curriculum. Students participating in the arts show higher average SAT scores. An analysis of 10 years of SAT data revealed that students who took four years of art courses in high school earned the highest scores on both the verbal and math SAT.

There is a significant correlation between high arts involved students and academic achievement, regardless of socioeconomic status. In fact, levels of academic achievement recorded by high arts-involved students in the lowest socioeconomic (SES) quartile narrow the gap with higher SES students. Twelfth grade, low SES/high arts-involved students nearly close the achievement gap in reading proficiency with higher SES/low arts-involved 12th graders (37.9% reaching high levels of reading proficiency versus 42.9% respectively). Learning music develops the region of the brain responsible for verbal memory, the recall, and the retention of spoken words, which serves as a foundation for retaining information in all academic subjects. Music students who were tested for verbal memory showed a superior recall for words as compared to non-music students. Moreover, the high arts-involved students also watched fewer hours of TV, participated in more community service, and reported less boredom in school. In an experimental research study of high school-age students, those who studied dance scored higher than non-dancers on measures of creative thinking, especially in the categories of fluency, originality, and abstract thought. Students who study music outperform their non-music peers in assessments of math, writing, using information resources, reading and responding, and proofreading.

The gains in the achievement of music students compared to nonmusical students increase over time. Arts Effects on Communication/ Relationships: The power of the arts is to unleash a person's creativity, to give them a voice, to open a channel for a person to succeed and thrive in unknown and unpredictable ways. The reason for this is that human beings possess multiple intelligences. Educator Howard Gardner, working at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education over the past 15 years, has identified seven different types of intelligence that we all have: language, math & logic, music, spatial reasoning, movement, interpersonal, intrapersonal. Most public education teaches to, recognizes, and rewards only two (Language and Math/Logic) out of all the types of intelligence that a young person possesses. It is a common experience for teachers who use the arts in the classroom to report that even the most unresponsive students come alive and show great success when they get a chance to work on an art project. To put on a play or a dance requires collaboration teamwork, listening, discipline, good communication skills, and involves a wide range of practical tasks --the ability to quickly absorb and follow a complex set of directions, the writing of press releases, and the ability to speak in front of the public-- to name a few. According to Jill Suttee, a researcher from Berkley, “when we try to synch with others musically by keeping the beat or harmonizing, we tend to feel positive social feelings towards those with whom we’re synchronizing. Coordinating movement with another person is linked to the release of pleasure chemicals (endorphins) in the brain, which may explain why we get those positive, warm feelings when we make music together.” Being a musician in a band is an experience like no other. It forces close communication with your bandmates to stay in sync and avoid musical train wrecks. This close communication leads to close connections, which often translates into deeper friendships. Psychological Effects of Arts: Music affects one brain in four domains: management of mood, stress, immunity, and as an aid to social bonding.

A study in 2011 found that music therapy, in which depressed patients play instruments to express how they’re feeling, can lead to lower levels of depression and anxiety: Individual music therapy combined with standard care is effective for depression among teenagers with depression. The results of this study along with the previous research indicate that music therapy with its specific qualities is a valuable enhancement to established treatment practices. This is good news for anyone who has dealt with the crippling effects of anxiety and depression who often doesn’t respond to standard treatments. Approximately 1 in 5 youth aged 13–18 (21.4%) experience a severe mental disorder at some point during their life. For children aged 8–15, the estimate is 13%.3. Over one-third (37%) of students with a mental health condition age 14­–21 and older who are served by special education drop out—the highest dropout rate of any disability group. Music therapy would be an effective way to keep students on track. Anything that lessens those symptoms is a win. Overall, music and the arts have a tremendous impact on the abilities of our students and their mental health. Conclusion fine art engages many areas of the brain and has far-reaching effects on the learner’s mind. The arts promote the understanding and sharing of culture. They promote social skills that enhance the awareness and respect of others. The fine arts enhance perceptual and cognitive skills. There are no barriers of race, religion, culture, geography, or socioeconomic levels. It is important that the future of America does not allow arts education to be underfunded. By taking funds away from the Department of Health and Human Services and giving those funds to education, we will be solving mental health issues early on, and these children will have decreased anxiety and depression, and coping methods in the future.