How does art class benefit your child’s academics?
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Does art relate to your child’s school performance? Surprisingly, an artistic ability can be inherent or can be learned just like any other school subject. A child’s perception through the eyes take in lights, shadows and measure depth perception every second of the day. This frame of view is automatic. Children and adults, naturally possess this skill.
Drawing requires utilizing a ” vanishing point”, which requires a ruler and angle of lines to create a 3-D effect on a flat surface. This learned skill is actually a factual math process in the brain that is akin to geometry. Some students are “naturals” in math, while their counterparts work twice as hard to achieve the same grade. Similarly, art is a practice or inherent, but humans can always improve.
It is a rare sight for a group of children to reluctantly approach a table set up with art supplies. They jump right in, exploring and using supplies in surprising abstract ways.
If you then asked this same group of curious children to paint a realistic horse, they would probably approach the teacher’s directions with the same exuberance. Taking a logical, step-by-step, patient teaching approach would yield surprising results, not just on paper, but in the child’s confidence (“I can LEARN a new skill”). This is a tangible example of a growth mindset that becomes immediately transferrable to all other academic areas. ” Can I learn algebra” becomes ” What is the first logical step to learn this?”.
School systems are drastically cutting their art programs. Taking enthusiastic children out of a proven method-based practice of repetition and perseverance deprives them of that important”aha” moment. Art isn’t just about teaching them to draw pretty pictures, it is teaching them grit, tenacity, and a method of approaching all academics.
