On Balance: Schools Should Teach Fine Arts to the Students

Well let's negate... "Art classes (Taught in school) are indeed a dictatorship" Dictatorship: absolute, imperious, or overbearing power or control. http://dictionary.reference.com... The source you used supports my argument. Look on page six if you will. "The arts curriculum is based on four central ideas " developing creativity, communicating, understanding culture, and making connections. Major aspects of these ideas are outlined in the chart below. Developing Creativity: " developing aesthetic awareness " using the creative process " using problem-solving skills " taking an innovative approach to a challenge" This is seen throughout the curriculum as well. Now on page 19: "All children have the ability to be creative. Education in the arts builds upon this ability and deepens children"s capacity for artistic expression and representation. Awareness of one"s inner feelings and thoughts is a prerequisite to making art. Inspiration and innovative thinking spring from this awareness and provide us with new answers and solutions, and new questions to pursue. Through the creation and presentation of art works, students express and communicate their creative insights in a range of forms and with varying degrees of concreteness and abstraction. Creativity involves the invention and the assimilation of new thinking and its integration with existing knowledge. Sometimes the creative process is more about asking the right questions than it is about finding the right answer. It is paradoxical in that it involves both spontaneity and deliberate, focused effort. Creativity does not occur in a vacuum. Art making is a process requiring both creativity and skill, and it can be cultivated by establishing conditions that encourage and promote its development. Teachers need to be aware that the atmosphere they create for learning affects the nature of the learning itself. A setting that is conducive to creativity is one in which students are not afraid to suggest alternative ideas and take risks. The creative process comprises several stages: " challenging and inspiring " imagining and generating " planning and focusing " exploring and experimenting " producing preliminary work " revising and refining " presenting, performing, and sharing " reflecting and evaluating" https://www.edu.gov.on.ca... These are seen consistently in the curriculum where teachers allow the students to use their imagination to make something original. By the way curriculum's are guidelines. Teachers can adapt their own. But since the curriculum is very intent on keeping creativity in the classroom it, by definition, goes against your dictatorship argument. "Because schools are a place of learning it is obvious that the most recorded development in children's brains is in the middle of the day when the brain is most active, and because they are being taught. If children were to be taught in a different area at the same time, the levels would be just the same because the variables would not have been changed." Huh? How is this a rebuttal? What I was saying is that school is the most convenient place to learn music and since the arts benefits not only cognitive abilities but also social skills school will be the most logical choice to teach the arts. "First off, if I am logically rebutting your points, using logic and philosophy as I have been doing..." This rant you made is neither logic nor fact and is what I was originally addressing... " School is supposed to be an academic environment. But the arts have somehow infested the hallways and taken thousands of students hostage with pretty colors and soothing sounds. Students go to school to learn the derivative of 48 x 2 and the Kreb's Cycle, not to paint abstract nothingness or to sing bad choral music....The arts, which are a required credit in many schools, distract students and create wannabe starving artists, who skip class because they don't want to put their precious guitar away, or who never leave the art room because they have to finish their masterpiece painting of a soda can...It is so easy to spot the artists in the classroom. The moment a teacher goes off on a boring rampage about something like the history behind the Electoral College, drummers start tapping a complicated rhythm on their desks, artists start doodling a hilarious cartoon of the teacher, and singers blankly stare at the chalkboard as they internally sing their newest choral song. The classroom is engulfed by creativity, and when the lesson is over, no one is sure where the Electoral College came from....This is the biggest problem with mixing extracurricular with academics. Students get too passionate about their art classes and completely neglect their core classes..." You call this ^^^^^ logical? "I completely agree that the essential english and grammatical lessons must be taught early so that our children mat speak clearly and properly. I agree that math must be taught early so that our children can effectively calculate. I agree that business must be taught so that they can properly invest." Well you should also then agree that the arts should be taught because the studies I have shown you prove the arts to be crucial in developing a better cognitive ability, creativity,social skills, self worth, and loads of other benefits. http://www.studentartguide.com... "The arts only make up .025% of out total jobs, so clearly they are not needed considering the funding given to them in our school system!" "The performing arts industry in Canada generated $1.5 billion in operating revenues in 2012." http://www.statcan.gc.ca... And in the U.S.A. arts contribute more to the economy than tourism! "In 2011, the production of arts and cultural goods and services employed 2.0 million workers and generated $289.5 billion in employee compensation in the form of wages, salaries and supplements." http://performingartsconvention.org... "You see that now my argument cannot be a red herring as I tied the quote in to the topic that we are debating and clearly explained it. Therefore it cannot be a red herring as defined above." Red Herring: "Attempting to redirect the argument to another issue that to which the person doing the redirecting can better respond. While it is similar to the avoiding the issue fallacy, the red herring is a deliberate diversion of attention with the intention of trying to abandon the original argument." "Only saints can nurture real talent. I am a writer, not even an artist, and even I can"t avoid feeling a twinge of resentment when a pimple-faced twerp with a skateboard under his arm shows me a mature and persuasive work of art. I can see, much more clearly than the twerp, the road opening before him, the obstacles falling away, and it"s all I can do not to stick out my foot and trip him. If I were an artist, with a stake in the game, I would probably trip him, and tell myself that it"s for his own good. It wouldn"t be. Better to buy the damned art and take your profit on the back end." If this isn't off track I don't know what to call it....By the way you didn't properly quote this. In Conclusion... Since basically everything my opponent has said so far has been rebutted and since none of my original facts such as the effect music has children's cognitive, social and creative abilities it should be clear who your vote should go for. Vote Pro, For I have shown you that there are more benefits to teaching music in school then not teaching it there. As for me, my name is Brian N. Johnson and thank you for reading.