The Arts Can Reconnect and Re-Engage Kids with Schools and Learning.
Our Academic Objectives are increased school participation and graduation rates among program participants, increased academic success and decreased truancy, improved attitudes about school and the  future, and increased percentages of college bound students among program participants.
Our Vocational Objectives are demonstrated improved employment skills (e.g., goal setting, communication, sales/marketing), to provide opportunities for students to use their new skills to produce, exhibit, and sell their own art, to provide opportunities to display artwork and receive public recognition for their work, and to provide exposure to career opportunities in the arts.
Our Personal Objectives are demonstrated enhanced self-image, improved or increased self-esteem, self-confidence, discipline, commitment, and responsibility, to provide opportunities to develop positive relationships with adult role models and peers, demonstrated increased pro-social behavior and reduced alienation from others, demonstrated increased social success and decreased delinquent behaviors, development and improvement of program related skills including expressing anger appropriately, more effective communication and increased positive association with adults and peers, and demonstrate healthier attitudes toward drug use.
How can the Arts Do This, and Change the Learning Experience?
When well taught, the arts provide young people with authentic learning experiences that engage their minds, hearts, and bodies. The learning experiences are real and meaningful for them. While learning in other disciplines may often focus on development of a single skill or talent, the arts regularly engage multiple skills and abilities. Engagement in the arts - whether the visual arts, dance, music, theatre or other disciplines - nurtures the development of cognitive, social, and personal competencies
The Arts reach students who are not otherwise being reached.
Young people who are disengaged from schools and other community institutions are at the greatest risk of failure or harm. Research finds that the arts provided a reason, and sometimes the only reason, for being engaged with school or other organizations.
The Arts reach students in ways that they are not otherwise being reached.
Other recent educational research has produced insights into different styles of learning. This research also addresses examples of young people who were considered classroom failures, perhaps “acting out” because conventional class room practices were not engaging them. These “problem” students often became the high achievers in Arts learning settings. Success in the arts became a bridge to learning and eventual success in other areas of learning.
The Arts connect students to themselves and each other.
Creating an art work is a personal experience. The student draws upon his or her personal resources to generate the result. By engaging his or her whole person, the student feels invested in ways that are deeper than “knowing the answer".
The Arts transform the environment for learning.
When the arts become central to the learning environment, schools and other settings become places of discovery. According to the Teachers College research team and those examining the CAPE schools, the very school culture is changed, and the conditions for learning are improved . Figurative walls between classrooms and disciplines are broken down. Teachers are renewed. Even the physical appearance of a school building is transformed through the representations of learning.
The Arts provide learning opportunities for the adults in the lives of young people.
Those held responsible for the development of children and youth - teachers, parents, and other adults - are rarely given sufficient or significant opportunities for their own continuing education. With adults participating in lifelong learning, young people gain an understanding that learning in any field is a never ending process . The roles of the adults are also changed - in effective programs, the adults become coaches — active facilitators of learning. Heath and other researchers here describe the altered dynamics between young and less young learners. a remarkable consensus exists among their findings.
The Arts provide new challenges for those students already considered successful.
Boredom and complacency are barriers to success. For those young people who out grow their established learning environments, the arts can offer a chance for unlimited challenge. Older students may also teach and mentor younger students. In others, young people gain from the experience of working with professional artists.
The Arts connect learning experiences to the world of real work.
The world of adult work has changed, and the arts learning experiences described in the research show remarkable consistency with the evolving workplace. Ideas are what matter, and the ability to generate ideas, to bring ideas to life and to communicate them is what matters to workplace success. Working in a classroom or a studio as an artist, the young person is learning and practicing future work place behaviors. A company is a company, whether producing an opera or a break through technological service.
The Arts enable young people to have direct involvement with art and artists.
Young people become and see them s elves as artists. Whether creating art works ,or perhaps even teaching younger student artists, the students learn various disciplines through hands-on arts experiences. They actively engage with artistic content, materials, and methods.
The Arts encourage self-directed learning. Students learning in and through the arts become their own toughest critics. The students are motivated to learn not just for test results or other performance outcomes, but for the learning experience itself. According the to the Art s Connection study, these learners develop the capacity to experience “flow,” self-regulation, identity, and resilience - qualities regularly associated with personal success.
|
