Unlike the rest of his body, which is growing within the parameters of a strict genetic blueprint, researchers believe his brain is hardwired only for basic structural growth. The volume and diversity of those first connections are crucial because every successive synapse will be built upon them. Recent advances in developmental science seem to show that the ability to comprehend, remember and interact with our complex society can be expanded by a holistic approach to learning that stresses the nearly synonymous activities of playing, exploring and participating in art. New understanding of how we learn and think is sometimes overshadowed by the misinterpretations of pop psychology. Yet Hetland says those and other studies reinforce her belief that participation in artistic expression can stimulate cognitive growth.
Show kids the relationship between art and the activities they can represent.
If you care about the arts as I do, it's just a travesty to see that training being cut from human lives. It does matter. It allows for a different potential from human beings than we get from just teaching science and language and math. Perhaps no one has influenced more children through the abstract influence of art than Pittsburgh's Fred Rogers. I'm fascinated by the primitive.