The Importance Of Visual Arts In Schools
Visual arts are a class of art forms that include: painting,
sculpture, photography, and other disciplines that focus on the
creation of artworks which are primarily visual in nature.
Visual arts are said to be important in schools since they tend
to develop the intelligence, as well as the overall personality
of students. In fact, studies have shown that students who are
exposed to visual arts tend to display above average
intelligence when it comes to mathematics and science.
Likewise, students who are greatly exposed to visual arts have
been observed to exhibit refined manners and develop a
much-matured outlook on life. Most educators have also noticed
that students perform better in class when visual arts are
incorporated in their curriculum.
Moreover, visual arts provide meaningful self-expression of all
students. This is also the reason why a great number of
educators have integrated visual arts in some of their subject
areas in the curriculum. Visual arts educators make use of rich
arrays of content to design curriculum that will enable students
to be able to meet various standards at different grade levels.
In order to meet the standards, students must be able to learn
vocabularies as well as some concepts that are associated with
diverse types of work in the visual arts. Likewise, students are
expected to exhibit their competence in various levels in
visual, oral, and written form. As early as kindergarten,
children are taught how to make choices that would enhance the
communication of their creative ideas.
Students that are in the middle grades are expected to apply the
knowledge as well as the skills in the visual arts to their
ever-expanding personal world. Students at this level tend to
consider visual art works within its historical concepts that
creates in them a deeper appreciation of their own values, and
likewise appreciate the values of others and somehow discover
the connection of visual arts to the universal needs of people
in terms of their values and beliefs.
Students in the higher levels are expected to create more
complex and insightful works of visual arts that will reflect
the maturation of their creative as well as their
problem-solving skills. And although, visual arts classes make
use of varied tools, techniques, and processes, students are
expected to understand the relationship of different types of
media, styles, forms, techniques as well as some of the
processes involved in the creation of their own form of visual
art. Students are also taught how to recognize the intrinsic
value of visual arts and what makes it important in the lives of
all educated persons.
Visual arts are also used in therapy procedures for aiding child
development. Visual arts assist in educating disabled children,
especially those who are blind and have hearing problems. Aside
from that, visual arts also help in building communities, mural
projects, and are also used to provide education for mentally
ill individuals.
At present continuous studies are being conducted to discover
more benefits derived from incorporating visual arts in
educating students.