Why is Art important in schools?


I was recently interviewed by a woman taking an Art Education class at a local college. Although I don’t remember the specific questions that were asked the general idea of most of the questions were “why is art important in our schools?” Honestly this is a question that I have struggled to answer ever since I have become a teacher. It is a topic that has spawned a lot of national debate and may school districts have cut their art programs. I have always felt like it was important but I just had a hard time explaining why. I don’t get asked this question very often so I have never had to put it into words like I did during this interview. I think I was able to explain myself pretty well but now that I have had a few days to think it over I want to explain a few reasons to you why art is so important for our schools. For the sake of this post when I say art I am often talking about the Arts in general including music, theater, and dance.
Art deals with the aesthetic experience
As defined by Sir Ken Robinson in his speech Changing Education Paradigms, an “aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak, when you’re present in the current moment, when you’re resonating with the excitement of this thing that you’re experiencing, when you’re fully alive.” And the Arts are the classes that focus on these experiences.
An Aesthetic Experience is when you are so taken with the beauty of an object, Idea, situation, or simply life itself that the only real words to explain it are “Wow!” People often have aesthetic experiences when they listen to music, experience nature, view artwork, are fascinated by the details of life, have an epiphany, read a good book, and many other instances. Really you can have an aesthetic experience anywhere and at any time. Even in school but especially in art.
In my opinion aesthetic experiences are what make life worth living. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that it is not possible to have an aesthetic experience in other classes, but those other classes are not focused on those experiences like Art is. How often does a math teacher talk about the way an equation makes you feel? Or how often does an anatomy teacher teach about how beautifully the human body is proportioned and how similar we are yet different all at the same time? Art teaches students to recognize when you are having an aesthetic experience, and the more you recognize it the more often they occur and the fuller life you live.
Art teaches creativity
Every teacher in every school struggles to incorporate creative thinking into their subjects. Creativity is a skill that is diminishing drastically as the years go by. There are many reasons for this drop in creativity. Some will blame it on electronic devices, television, non creative toys, helicopter parenting, and even the schooling system. In reality it is probably a combination of these and other factors.
There is no better place to teach creativity in schools than the Art classroom. It is not that other teachers can’t teach about creativity as it applies to their subject, but all too often they don’t. There is a common myth that people think they are unable to learn creativity. And if they don’t have it then they don’t have it. This is a lie but many people believe it anyway. If I were to ask teachers in my school if they were creative I am confident a majority would say no. As an Art teacher I have taken it upon myself to teach creativity. In no other classroom in the school is creativity so encouraged and accepted. Simply put, Art Teaches creativity like no other subject can, and creativity is a skill that can and should be applied to every aspect of life.
Art teaches about visual culture.
In today’s world we are constantly bombarded with visual stimuli. Everywhere we go there are advertisements screaming at you, videos, graphic design, fashion, and many other visual things vying for your attention. Art class is the only class that attempts to scratch the surface of educating students on visual culture. With visual culture so much a part of our lives it would be ridiculous to think we don’t need some sort of a visual education.
Art gives other subjects application
I was just telling my wife last night how I am very into Anatomy and learning the muscles and bones, but if it wasn’t for my interest in art I don’t think I would care about anatomy at all. For students who have an interest in art there are many parallels that can be drawn from other subjects. Correlations include math as we practice proportions and perspective drawing. Science as we mix glazes and paint. Anatomy as we learn how to draw and sculpt the human body. Literature as we are inspired by poetry and other works. History as we learn about artist and artist movements in history.
Art gives an outlet for many students who are not interested in other things.
In a quick informal survey of my students I asked “why is it important to have art in school” they didn’t need time to think about it, they immediately blurted out reasons it is important to them. Some said things like “because it teaches us how to express ourselves better” others said things like “it gives us a relaxing break from boring classes”.  This was an advanced class full of kids who enjoyed art. For many of these students art is the reason why they come to school. It was much the same for me. I really struggled in school growing up and art was the only class I felt I belonged. It was the only class that kept me going to school. Some might argue that there are other ways to give students an outlet, and they are right. There are extracurricular sports, cooking, agriculture classes. all of which can fill that same roll. However there are still students who have a need and thirst for the arts and those other classes simply will not do.
This by no means is an extensive list of reasons why art is important in schools but I think they are some pretty solid reasons. I’d like to know what you think. What are some reasons you think art is important to schools… or not.  I’d love to hear your comments.