Many arts educators say it's about time. New research, some more solid than others, is linking fine arts instruction to significant improvement in how much and how well children learn academic skills. The research makes absolute sense to me.
Art is such a basic human activity.
You can't do it without reading or doing math. Meanwhile, some educators are pleased to see scientific backup for what they already know to be true from classroom experience. Randolph was one of four schools that participated in a much-praised study commissioned last spring by Whirlwind, a Chicago arts education group that uses drama to teach reading. Karl Androes, Whirlwind's executive director, says that drama and reading, for example, have parallel skills. And then, on the inferential side, to figure out and be able to say why they did it.