The Arts in Elementary Schools: What’s the point?

Remember back to the good old days of elementary school when you got to draw, paint, sculpt, sing, play instruments, dance, and/or participate in plays. It was fun, wasn’t it? Many elementary school students enjoy the arts as part of their daily activities in the school. For many elementary students, it is their chance to do something they actual like to do.

Yeah its fun for the students, but are they actually getting anything from the arts. In the New York Times article The Arts Come Alive In School Programs , by Merri Rosenberg, Barbara Levine, a Hillside Elementary art teacher, said: ''The idea with art is that they have to make decisions. It's creative problem solving and using critical thinking skills.''

The arts allow children to express themselves. They give the students an opportunity to show their creativity in a way other subjects cannot. In most cases, the arts give the students opportunities to develop their intrapersonal relationships as well as developing interpersonal relationships. Results from national research on arts education emphasize the benefits of the arts in schools.

Do you think it is important to have the arts as part of the elementary school curriculum? If so, how much time should be devoted to the arts? If not, why? Can the students really gain anything from participating in the arts? What are your suggestions for the elementary schools?

Studying Humanities, Law and Science.

If the humanities are fading so fast, why did a humanities professor at one of the best colleges in the United States get a $1.5 million grant? An article called Brooks to Study Law, Humanities with Grant in the Yale Daily News, which can be found at http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/23003, lets us know just what Peter Brooks plans on doing with that grant. Peter Brooks is a professor of Comparative Literature at Yale (www.yale.edu) and every year for the past three years a grant is given to someone in the humanities department there. Why is Yale, one of the best schools in the country so focused on improving the humanities, especially after the constant criticism that the humanities has received? It is simple, Peter Brooks is also a professor at that Yale Law School and said “he was drawn to the idea of applying humanities methods of reading and interpretation to professional scholarship after the 2004 release of Justice Department memorandums approving the use of torture.” I believe that we need more people like Peter Brooks teaching us. He is not saying that the humanities are what will turn our world around, nor is he saying that it is pointless. I believe that he has every intention of combining humanities with law and science in order to make the world a better place.
To me, this is a very interesting idea. Applying humanities to law and science doesn’t seem like it could work. However, Peter Brooks is determined to make it work and in all reality, I believe that maybe it could. If we look at what the humanities have to offer and what other areas of study lack, maybe there will be some connection between the two and Peter Brooks will be able to use his grant money to start combining them (To learn more about Peter Brooks, Click here: http://www.yale.edu/opa/yb&c/story3.html) . He isn’t claiming that the humanities are more ethical that law and science, but what I believe is that the humanities offer something that the other two cannot and vice versa. So, can Peter Brooks do the research in order to prove that the humanities have something to offer? Hopefully. What do you think? Do you think it is possible for the humanities to go hand in hand with law and science?