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Austin Neese Megan Keaton ENG 112-11 5 May 2013 Argumentative Paper Many people in society today are arguing the importance of growing arts education in our schools. There are many individuals that agree with this idea; however there are others who do not. Some people believe that focusing on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) should be the main focus, but there is a growing body of research that explains the positive effects that improving arts education would have on students. Both parties should care because this is going to have a huge impact on how the future turns out. We need people who can think freely and help discover new advances in technology. In this paper I am first going to present the claims of those who agree with the above statement. Following that, I will explain the opinion of those who believe that focusing on STEM will benefit students more. By the end of the paper I am going to come to a compromise that combines both arts education as well as STEM classes so both parties are satisfied. Society knows that both programs are good for students one way of another, so combining the two will be the best way to really benefit students. In one article written by Beth Baker, she often talks about the negative effects that the decline of arts education already has shown on our students. Students today are not learning what they are being taught; they are just memorizing the information without questioning it or fully understanding it. She also talks about how creativity cannot be taught as a class, and in order for a change to happen we would need to harbor creativity and promote creative thinking. Beth believes that as of right now, schools are producing poor problem solvers who only memorize

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information that is fed to them by teachers. Mrs. Baker says some research suggests highquality arts education helps improve test scores and reduce tardiness and truancy. When I was in high school I noticed that the students that were into art and music were never tardy to class and they also tended to score higher on tests than other students. Beth Baker also explains that not only would test scores improve, but arts education offers a unique approach to help students to grow socially and intellectually. The arts help shape who we are as individuals and create those differences in people. Not only does it define who we are, but it helps enforce stronger ideas and creative thinking. Lastly, Mrs. Baker points out that In a 1993 experiment, college students performed better on a test for spatial reasoning after listening for 10 minutes to a Mozart sonata.(Baker 1). Beth provides worthy information about arts education and the effects that improving these programs would have on students. In another article written by Melissa Taylor she also talks about the reasons why schools needs to better promote creativity and different ways that they can begin to do so. In one part of her article, Melissa quotes Sir Ken Robinson saying that schools kill creativity. Melissa explains that creativity is not only drawing something, but it is being able to create something original and of substance. Like Beth Baker, Melissa also discusses about how we would go about bettering our arts education programs and harbor creativity. Melissa stresses the amount of time and effort that we would need in order to reach a certain goal. We need people that can think for themselves and help discover new and useful advances. Melissa quotes Bill Gates from one of his speeches, saying that Innovation has been and will continue to be the key to improving the world. In order for innovation to continue to improve we would need to try and improve our arts education systems. Melissa also talks a lot about the fact that teachers today are not allowing their students freedom. Teachers should allow their students to think for themselves and find the

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answers by trial and error. Failure is not a bad thing and it supports creativity; that is the reason why children are so creative because they do not know what failure is and they throw ideas around without thinking. Our society can benefit from an increase in arts education, and so can our students. I was reading some information on the Huffington Post and I stumbled upon an article that was written by a man named Keith Sawyer. Dr. Keith Sawyer gives plenty of interesting information and opinions in his article where he talks about developing schools that are creative in order to fully prepare students for the world today. He mainly talks about the world today, and how most of the jobs out there and how jobs are going to require more creative thinking people. Keith sawyer also exclaims that Graduates today need to maximize their own creative potential, because jobs that don't require creativity are being outsourced or automated. If we do not try and increase the amount of creative thinking that is going on in schools, there is a possibility that we will be hurting students more than helping them. Students should be able to come up with their own ideas in order to discover new and innovative changes. Many of the jobs that are out there today can be taken over by computers. Going back to what Mrs. Baker and Taylor both said, Keith Sawyer believes that The path to the creative society of the future goes straight through the classroom. But not the memorize-and-regurgitate classrooms we have today -instead, classrooms that give students a deeper understanding of the material. If we are going to try to make these changes to arts education, there should also be changes in the classroom. Teachers today should try and allow their students more freedom to think and solve problems on their own. Along with the ideas and information I gathered from the above articles, Rebecca Isbell also supports the idea of encouraging creativity in schools. Rebeccas article is mainly talking

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about the idea that creativity cannot be taught, but it should be promoted if there is going to be any change. Rebecca believes that children should not be memorizing the information but Rather, children must be able to solve problems, be flexible in their thinking, and be willing to venture into new areas of study that have yet to be discovered. She also exclaims that children who are more creative might adapt better to new situations. For these changes to take place, teachers would need to try and be more flexible with their students and allow room for failure and positive reinforcement. Of course this would not be a debate if there were only one side of the argument. In an article written by Debbie Aragon she focuses on explaining the importance of STEM. She debates about how technology and math are two of the most important focuses in schools today. Debbie quotes the Air Force saying that every job of the future will require basic knowledge of math and science. Our society is obviously focusing on technology and innovation, so pinpointing on STEM might benefit students more so than focusing on arts education. Debbie also has faith in the fact that STEM programs might help critical thinking skills develop better in students. The way our world is heading today, students may benefit from knowing information regarding science, technology, engineering and math. We need people that can solve problems and think critically. The opposing side might benefit if there are advances in the arts education system. I think that arts education and STEM are both important focuses in the world today, but I believe that arts education will benefit both parties more. If we focus on arts education we should see a change in how students think and act. Studies have shown that children who are more creative than others tend to pay better attention. Other studies have shown an increase in test scores from individuals that are more creative. Our society continues to grow, and so does technology. We

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would benefit from people that can think freely and discover new things on their own. I am not saying that STEM is not important; I just agree that arts education might benefit us more. We already have classes that focus on STEM, if we took those classes and allowed students to be more creative, we might be able to come to a compromise. Offer more classes that require creative thinking and make changes to those that do not. The question is the now what. I believe that we should try and combine these two totally different programs and try to make it work in favor of both parties. We need to publicize our knowledge about fine arts and STEM, and if necessary, complete more studies to help drive people to stand up for these two programs. After we begin convincing people about creativity we would need to make a stand to stop cutting arts education programs in schools. We need to try and allow schools to offer more programs like art and music. Not only do we need to offer more classes but we need to try and find teachers that have a good mix of knowledge in more than one subject. Teachers that have knowledge in science, technology, engineering, math, and the fine arts would be ideal in order to make this change happen. If we have teachers that have more than one degree in a certain field, this might help us harbor STEM and creativity together. Teachers should allow their students freedom to think and explore in their work, not just feed them information and expect them to retain it. Teachers would help increase creativity by better understanding failure and realizing that not everyone is perfect. Some people see things differently than others, and that is what creativity is all about.

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Work Cited Baker, Beth. "Arts Education." CQ Researcher 16 Mar. 2012: 253-76. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. Taylor, Melissa. "Do Schools Kill Creativity? If So, What Can We Do About It?" Parenting.com. Class Notes, 12 July 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. Sawyer, Dr. R. Keith. "Schools That Foster Creativity." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 08 Dec. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. Isbell, Rebecca T., and Shirley C. Raines. Creativity and the Arts with Young Children. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/Delmar Learning, 2003. Print. Aragon, Debbie. "Mentoring Tomorrow's STEM Professionals More Important than Ever." U.S. Air Force. N.p., 13 Feb. 2013. Web.