Teaching Basics Through the Arts
by Mona Brookes
There was a moment when I thought I would see the extinction of the arts in our education system. I heard the cry for huge budget cuts that resulted in canceled art classes. I was surprised to learn how much parents cared about those cuts as they flocked to private art programs and developed after- school enrichment programs. School districts that wanted their teachers trained in how to integrate the arts into their teaching methods began to have trouble finding the funding.
Then a wondrous thing happened. Elementary teachers began to sign up for supplemental training on their own. I saw them purchasing resource materials and educating themselves on how to understand multiple intelligence theory and integrated curriculum concepts. Their dedication astounded me. They said they felt that eliminating the arts was a mistake. They talked about how children learn in various ways and how academics were suffering from the loss of the arts. They made me understand the role of the arts in basic education. They expanded my focus from realistic drawing instruction to an entire curriculum that uses drawing to teach academic subject matter.
As an artist and the founder of the Monart drawing schools, I simply wanted to help children draw for enjoyment. Symbolic stick figure drawing came naturally to all my students, but realistic drawing did not. It seemed apparent that they needed instruction to achieve realism, just as they did to learn music, dance, creative writing, and endless other artistic endeavors. As a result, I had to develop a structured curriculum that taught enough basics for success and enough freedom for creative expression. It was a delight to find that the structured lessons did not interfere with the symbolic drawings they did on their own. I would never have guessed that the structured method would also lead to helping students in their other subjects. Hundreds of teachers, from all over the country, taught me the connection. Their stories were too consistent to ignore.
Teachers who taught reading reported that children who learned to draw and see through my visual alphabet had dramatic increases in letter recognition and reading readiness. These teachers noticed that the motivation to read expanded when the children drew the characters and subjects from their books. Drawing the content of science, geography, and social studies lessons resulted in noticeable differences in speed of learning and retention. When teachers used the abstract design lessons to teach math concepts, they witnessed children break through conceptual blocks with ease while having fun.
Teachers observed that students who had attention problems could learn through drawing to stay on track for unbelievable lengths of time. In order to achieve realistic drawings the students automatically learned to focus, concentrate, and problem solve. With motivation at its peak, teachers witnessed peak learning of course content. After a year of using the program, school districts began reporting as much as 20 percent increases in reading, writing, and math scores. I watched the same phenomena occur when teachers integrated music, movement, visual games, journal writing, and other artistic fields of study into their lessons.
The arts are coming back, stronger than ever, whether they get funded or not. In the last ten years I have watched the awareness and implementation of the arts increase dramatically. At a time when art budgets are still threadbare, teachers have educated themselves in how to use the arts as one of the most powerful teaching tools they have. The reason the shift is taking place is because it works.
Mona Brookes is the author of Drawing with Children and Drawing for Older Children and Teens. She is also the founder of Monart Drawing Schools.
You can reach her at:
Monart
P O Box 1630
Ojai, CA 93024
(805) 640-0929
FAX (805) 640-0859
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