Art classes needed in schools

Simon Marcus Gower, Jakarta

It is an observable reality that children are creative and they love to create things and, in turn, it is logical to consider that they have the potential for a love to participate in the arts. From the relatively unintelligible scribbles of toddlers through to sophisticated and complicated musical performance by early teenagers or even before, children show a consistent and remarkable power of creation.

Sadly, though, this innate power is all too often undermined and even, regrettably, all but destroyed by the over pervasive requirements of formal education. There quite often seems to be a prevailing and predominant orientation towards the sciences in schools that may rather sideline thoughts and development of the arts.

This is particularly sad because, as noted, children can be very creative but without sufficient and appropriate opportunity and stimulation neglect can wither their creative instincts and leave them underdeveloped. But also, and equally disturbingly and disappointingly, arts themselves and the development of artistic expression in schools can be under-valued.

It is possible to see an attitude amongst some educators that simply leaves the arts in the realms of a leisure type pursuit or a less than serious interest that is only really considered as a hobby. This means that arts may be appropriated as additional things that fall outside of the remit of more "serious" formal education.

In this context of thought the arts are left on the periphery of the educational spectrum. Quite often thoughts and the dedication of any efforts towards the arts are left in the areas of extracurricular activities. Similarly, quite often parents are left to, or are obliged to, have their children pursue their artistic expression in private and/ or tutorial based learning. The expense of this kind of private rendering of the arts can be preclusive for many but it can also prove difficult for the children as inevitably it must occur after school hours.

This kind of condition can create unfortunate and unwanted negativity from the children. For example, quite consistently children will complain that to follow a program of music or art study after school is tiring for them. Their concentration levels are relatively low after a day in school and so their commitment to their "after school study" can be wavering.

Arts and the stimulation of artistic expression does not have to, and probably really should not, be sidelined as something that is "nice to have" but is effectively looked upon as none essential. Perhaps it is a tendency to orientate towards quite linear cognitive skills and the ability to understand and use certain symbolic fields such as numbers and words that leads to some neglect of visual and creative skills.

However, more and more education theorists and research projects into educational practices highlight a variety of ways in which we can think of intelligence and indeed different types of intelligences in people. Amongst these it has been identified that we can think of intelligence in terms of "expressive intelligence", "artistic intelligence", "visual intelligence", "perceptual intelligence" and "emotional intelligence".

Each of these "intelligences" lean towards art and the creative process. But in addition, each of them can be quite readily connected to the skill of thinking and understanding of the world around us. There are very real and concrete skills that can be practiced and learnt from being guided in the realms of art that can enhance and positively support the intellectual and thinking ability of students in school.

Two very simple examples can illustrate the multiple and multiplying skills that can be derived from the arts and accompanying skills that can positively benefit other areas of a student's school studies. A student asked to do something as seemingly mundane as draw typical household objects in a still- life sketch can gain considerable skills from this activity.

The spatial awareness that the student develops enhances ability to understand spatial relationships. Attention to visual details enhances the student's appreciation of design.

Thus it can be seen that from the simplest of artistic challenges (drawing everyday objects) a student can practice and gain a variety of skills that can be applied in other fields of study. Similarly, a student that is given opportunity to develop musically can encounter and internalize learning experiences that can be applied in other study settings.

A student that is guided to be able to use a simple musical instrument, even one as simple as a percussion instrument such as a tambourine, is potentially gaining a variety of learning experiences that may assist general learning. For example, the ability to work with melody, tone and rhythm is an intelligence that can be applied in other fields such as expressive speech intonation and listening.

Two very simple forms of artistic involvement and initiation into creativity, then, drawing and basic percussion instrumentation, can be seen to create opportunities and stimuli for the development of a quite diverse range of learning and skills that may be applied to more "serious" areas of schooling.

The tendency to look upon the arts with a certain amount of flippancy and sideline them as kinds of "nice to have but none essential" aspects of school life should not be allowed to prevail and cloud the genuine value they may have. Skills learned and experiences gained in the fields of the arts can be applied to the fields of the sciences.

The kind of creativity and originality of thought that naturally goes on in the arts is something that has its place in the sciences too. After all, the aims of innovation and invention in the sciences are hugely dependent upon creative thinking. Children's own natural abilities to be creative should not be squandered or squashed by formal schooling. Schools need to stimulate not stifle creativity. The diversity of our world and the swiftness of change demand this.

The writer is Executive Principal of the High/Scope Indonesia School. The opinions expressed above are personal.