Through the arts we learn to appreciate, and even to create, things of beauty. We know about the ancient Greeks and Native Americans, for example, by the architecture, poetry, and paintings they left behind. We, too, will be known someday to future generations by the art we produce and leave to posterity. I believe that students cannot understand culture, their own or others', without a solid sense of the arts. There are other important points that strengthen the case for the arts to parents, to business people, to other educators.
Parents are naturally concerned with the basics.
But we can also tell parents how the arts help develop a young person's character and values, confidence and empathy, respect and tolerance. If, for example, you are a member of the cast of a play, you have an obligation to learn your lines well. You have to help pull the performance together. You have to work toward the goal of the group. Through the arts, children learn that there is a time for originality and a time for replication, a time to be the star and a time to be a productive member of the group.