At The Rhoades School, students in grades K-8 ponder the question, “Why does art matter?”
Elliot Eisner, Professor of Education at Stanford University, has written numerous books about how the arts can be used to improve education. He argued that art is actually a way of knowing and understanding the world, and that aesthetic intelligence is needed in education for students to become fully literate. Eisner also suggested that the arts help students to develop essential cognitive skills allowing students to go beyond words and numbers when making meaning of a concept, text, or piece of art. More recently, Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, suggested that the Masters of Fine Arts is the new Masters of Business Administration because it is becoming increasingly important for all individuals to think about the elements of design, persuasion, empathy, and self-understanding, which are all developed through art education.
Please read research done by Arts Education Partnership on the benefits of Arts education.