Why Art Education Is Crucial: Flowers Are Red

Former teacher Peggy Broadbent has contributed some valuable information to the conversation about art education and its importance to students and to our world.  Since school art programs are being eliminated across the country, this is a critical topic and I will happily pass along information that contributes to the understanding of the importance of art education, not in creating future artists but in creating an environment where children learn to think creatively, work independently and communicate with passion and expression.

Here's a highlight of one of Peggy's blog posts on this subject and you can click here to read the full post:

It has been long understood that when children are participating in art, they are in a process that includes nourishing expression, an acuteness of the senses, experimentation and risk-taking, developing imagination, and creative development. However, in addition to these assets, it’s also another way of communicating.

Peggy says that art education for young children should:

• emphasize the process, not the product
• stimulate pure investigation into a variety of materials
• allow children to use their own ideas and imaginations 

For a heartbreaking view of what can happen if we take art education out of schools ... or focus on the product rather than process ... listen to this song by Harry Chapin, a storyteller/songwriter/social activist who was taken from us way too soon in an auto accident.