Significance of Art in Schools

Now is your chance to use the analysis you completed in Discussions Seven and Eight. In Discussion Nine, you will incorporate your thesis and your answers to questions into a brief essay (700 word minimum length) that will analyze the article.
Unlike your answers to the questions in Discussion Seven and Eight, this mini essay will use a narrative format like you wrote in Discussions 1-6. Include your thesis statement from Discussion Seven in the first paragraph of your mini essay in Discussion Nine.
Feel free to use first person narrative if you wish, but keep in mind that first and second person is NOT allowed in Essay Three. For this reason, you might want to use third person in Discussion Nine. Why? Because if you write in third person then you could pretty much incorporate (cut and paste) all of the narrative into Essay Three. Obviously, this would require some adjusting, here and there, but, by and large, the material could be used in Essay Three. How cool is that? You get up to 20 points for writing what you would already need to write in Essay Three, which covers all of the concepts listed in D7 and D8.
Please make sure that your analysis is essay quality. An essay quality discussion should meet the following requirements:
1. Spell and grammar checked
2. Edited for smooth sentence structures, and an adequate variety of sentence structures (the occasional use of both independent and dependent clauses)
3. Includes an original title (not the name of the assignment)
3. Utilizes proper paragraphing
4. Uses at least two quotations from the article that are smoothly worked into sentences using signal phrases.
I strongly recommend that you use the material in Discussions 7-9 in Essay Three. This will greatly enhance your last big essay for the term, and it will also help to ensure that you earn the highest grade possible for Essay Three.
In other words, "Have no fear!" You've already done quite a bit of work that you can cut and paste into your essay! In fact, there's no reason why all of Discussion Nine can't be used in your essay. Of course, since this essay is worth twice the normal points of a discussion, it's also twice the length. Do make sure you meet the minimum word count, or your grade will be penalized heavily.
In this way, Discussions 7-9 have helped you to do the best you can on Essay Three. Please feel free to ask me if you have any questions.
Responses to other discussions: Unlike D1-D6, there is no reply requirement in this assignment. Just focus on your own progress. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE other peoples' work. Yes, it's find to have a look and see what others are doing, but I will be forced to throw out your discussion if I determine that you have plagiarized someone else's work on the board.
MAKE SURE YOUR INCLUDE A BOX COPY, AS WELL AS AN ATTACHMENT. YOU MUST DO BOTH TO QUALIFY FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT. IT'S NEAR THE END OF THE TERM NOW. YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO INCLUDE A BOX COPY AS WELL AS AN ATTACHMENT. NO EXCUSES PLEASE. JUST DO IT. :))
This discussion is worth up to 20 points. 20 points is an A+. Most people earn less than 20 points unless their discussion is A+ caliber work. Discussion Nine is not worth more than 20 points even though it has a 700 word minimum because basically it's just an early draft of part of your third essay. 8
Example
Word Count 849
Discussion Nine
Art in Schools
After attending school from kindergarten through secondary school, art projects is something that always stands out to students. Throughout a students time spent in schools, they enjoyed going through the art projects the most. Whether it was creating the countdown to Christmas chain in kindergarten, or creating a movie poster for a President of the United States. A student's learning career faces many challenges, like studying for three different tests that occur on the same day, or having a mountain of homework to do by the week. Applying art within a lecture or a unit will help alleviate the student’s stress and help them relax while they are going through the day. However, using art and music in schools, is starting to decline. The schools are cutting the art and music programs to ensure that they will have more time spent on learning math, reading, and science. This is starting to cause a problem with educating the whole student, and not just a certain aspect of them. As math and science is beginning to be more of a focus in school, art is beginning to decline. In early years of education, art is considered a building block for brain development. Allowing more art to be brought in to schools can help develop children's decision making, their creativeness, and their academic performances.
During the beginning of a child’s life, they are learning so many different things, like how to communicate what they are feeling, and how to make basic decisions. Having a child who uses art will help them with both of those things, as they are able to express themselves through drawing a picture, or listening to music. With these basic things, they are able to go into school with a more level head, and have an easier time talking about what emotions they have.
In the article, “The Good and Bad News About Arts Education in U.S. Schools” written by Tim Walker, he was able to explain how beneficial allowing arts in education is. Walker said that more than 1.3 million elementary students are not getting any music instruction, in addition to that nearly four million elementary school students are not receiving any instruction for visual arts. Another thing to add is that about 800,000 thousand secondary school students are not receiving music instruction either. This is because of the schools major budget cuts going on, and they have to cut the programs so that the students are focusing more on math, reading, and science.
With the No Child Left Behind law, passed in 2002 by President George W. Bush, was the beginning of the decline in visual arts programs. The law stated that students from third grade through eighth grade, and once in high school, must take reading and math tests to show that they are in the level they needed to be in. After the tests were done, it was up to the states to help bring each child up to the proficiency they needed to be. Walker discussed the most troubling thing to find in a study completed by the Department of Education was the equity gap. The gap was between the availability of having arts instruction for more wealthy schools compared to a more high-poverty school. Having a student who is more economically disadvantaged than another does not have the same learning experiences as those who are in a more wealthy school.
Students who have the availability to learn more arts in schools have a higher chance at graduating, and being successful in a more challenging topic in school. A study done by the National Endowment for the Arts who specifically tracked the impacts that the arts have on a student has shown the progress students can make when there is a form of art in the schools. The study found that the students who have access to arts inside, or even outside of school are better off in the future. Those students will tend to have better academic results, more workforce opportunities, and even more civic engagement. An example of this is low income students who have had an arts rich experiences in high school were ten percent more likely to complete a high school calculus class than a student who did not. Another thing Walker mentioned with the study was that 74 percent of students from a low income school, but had an arts rich learning experience, were more likely to receive a bachelor’s degree.
The National Education Association believes that the arts have a tie into education. That is why it is important that teachers are focused on the whole student, and not just meeting the states standard. Students should be exposed to a broad curriculum that is not just math, science, and reading. Students should be given the opportunity to join clubs or programs like music, dance, or theater. Having those classes allows the students to express themselves, and give them an opportunity to learn and give ideas.
Link to article: http://neatoday(dot)org/2012/04/05/the-good-and-bad-news-about-arts-education-in-u-s-schools-2/
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