Art Education in Contemporary Classrooms: Issues and Practices

Art is important to teach as a core subject for many reasons. Much of the world is made up of art or references to art, artists or specific pieces of artwork. In order for children to indulge themselves in this major part of society an understanding of art must be developed; "the study of art is essential for an educated understanding of the world." (Day 39) Usually the teaching of art to children involves only the children making art or crafts. A more informative approach to learning about art, however, is to have the children not only make art, but discuss it, observe it and read and write about. It is this way that the topic of art will become more wholly understood. The creativity and uniqueness of subjects addressed in an art class is different from other core subjects. Children are able to express themselves creatively and individually unlike those subjects of math and science where only one definite answer is accepted. It is important for teachers to set time aside in the curriculum in order for children to embrace all these mentioned experiences. Art needs to be treated as a separate subject with sufficient supplies, space and an informative instructor so children can gain a strong sense of art and benefit all the characteristics and knowledge that come with learning art.

To allow children to fully experience the benefits of learning art, the instructor must acknowledge the individual skill level (Day 46) and children who come from cultures that may be unfamiliar to us Canadians (Day 54). If these conditions are achieved successfully the children will, hopefully, continue to express themselves in some sort of art form, developing their own style as they grow older and influencing other students, smaller children and adults alike. It is noted that we can all learn from each other, no matter what skill level, age or background we come from.