By Karen Bridson
June 2011
Singapore schools have some of the highest academic achievement scores in math and language of any country in the world.
Part of the secret of their success has been a focus on the arts, according to the country’s former minister of education, Eng Hen Eg, who gave a talk on the subject in Ontario at the province’s Building Blocks for Education conference last fall.
Meanwhile in Ontario, the arts are becoming less and less of a focus schools boards grapple with budget deficits, according to People for Education’s 2011 Annual Report on Ontario’s Publicly Funded Schools.
“When art is seen as a perk, or a subject that is dispensable, students internalize that message and ultimately come to view the arts as a less important subject.”
Allyson Payne, an artist and art educator who has worked with the Toronto District School Board, says the arts may be one of the four core components of the Ontario curriculum, but schools devote far less than 25 percent of their time and resources on the arts.
“School boards have cut arts specialists, arts consultant positions, and much of the budget for art and music materials,” she says.
Who gets time for the arts?
The People for Education report found just 47 percent of elementary schools in Ontario have a music teacher, down from 58 percent in 1997/1998.
It also found elementary schools rely on fundraising to cover the costs of things like musical instruments, arts supplies and other forms of arts enrichment.
“The delivery of arts education in Ontario Schools is inconsistent at best, and at worst completely non-existent,” says Payne. “Without art specialists in (many) schools, too much depends on the discretion of principals, the dedication of individual teachers, and fundraising by parent councils. The result is a very uneven (and inequitable) patchwork of arts education, where schools in privileged areas have the means to fundraise to support what are often high-quality art programs staffed by qualified art educators, but schools in lower socio-economic neighbourhoods have no art programs whatsoever.”
How well trained are teachers in the arts?
People for Education does keep track of the percentage of teachers who specialize in certain areas, but says these numbers can be misleading because the Ministry of Education has given no guidelines about the qualifications that a teacher must have in order to act as a specialist at the elementary level.
Meanwhile, the province’s 212-page arts curriculum document makes the subject area a priority, stating, “Education in the arts is essential to students’ intellectual, social, physical, and emotional growth and well-being.”
But this doesn’t always end up being a priority for every school, says Payne.
“The amount of art education from school to school varies widely, but I would venture to say that some students get very little in the way of quality art education,” says Payne. “Unless the principal emphasizes the importance of it, or a parent council advocates strongly, there are often no repercussions for weak art programs.”
Art is an 'afterthought' or a 'treat': Payne
Instead, the focus remains on the ‘three Rs,’ reading, writing and arithmetic, she says.
“In some cases art appears to be an afterthought. I've even seen it presented as a Friday ‘treat’ that is a privilege that can be withdrawn on account of collective bad behaviour,” she says.
“When art is seen as a perk, or a subject that is dispensable, students internalize that message and ultimately come to view the arts as a less important subject.”
The irony, she says, is that the skills developed by learning in the arts, such as creativity, high-order thinking and problem solving are highly transferable skills that are highly valued in the work place.
“Not only are the arts intrinsically valuable (art for art's sake) as a creative outlet, a way of exploring identity, enriching our lives and expressing ourselves, the arts are also easy to justify in terms of their extrinsic value,” she says.
What kids get out of art class
“The arts offer students different ways of thinking and learning, and help develop higher level critical thinking skills such as problem solving, creativity, and self-discipline that are essential for success in today's workplace. The arts also promote learning in other subject areas. Studies have continually shown that learning in the arts is highly transferable and improves students' achievement and test scores across disciplines. Arts education also offers an opportunity for students to excel who may struggle with traditional learning styles.”
Moya Fewson, the senior trainer for the Sheridan HighScope Teacher Education Centre and the executive director and founder of the Caledon East Children's Place, says the benefits of arts in schools goes even beyond this.
“Art develops executive function,” she says. “It causes the child to consider options, explore feelings, observe things closely and then represent them. Representation allows the synapses in the brain to thicken… (Creative art) allows children to experiment... ‘What will happen if I mix these colours?’ It allows children to make mistakes... it allows them to problem solve. Creative art can allow a child to express their feelings and should allow them to do so in a way that is not judged.”
So can we fit art into the classroom everyday?
If art is so beneficial, and other countries see its value, why don’t we?
“We value capitalist values,” says Fewson. “(We value) doing things to earn money. And we don't have a long history of art.”
Payne says with current budget concerns it may be unrealistic to expect schools to put in place more art specialists right now. But, she says, more resources could be developed to help all teachers do an effective job of bringing art into the classroom.
"I think it would be valuable to produce many sample lesson plans for teachers which teach to specific curriculum expectations and provide guidance as to how to model the format, and modify the plan to target other learning outcomes from the curriculum,” she says.
“Unless there is a systemic change, with more value placed on arts education in faculties of education, or more mandated in-service training or support, arts education will always be the poor cousin to language, math and science,” she says.
