Throughout one's educational journey, there is always a heavy emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. While these subjects are always important, especially while performing basic tasks, artistic students typically struggle with memorizing formulas and applying strenuous concepts. People, such as myself, that are more creative-types are visual learners who absorb information through pictures, charts, and color because of the way our brains are wired. Unfortunately, however, the education system generally caters more towards those who specialize in analytical thinking processes.
In order to address this clear divide between students and their minds, educators must first understand something: every child is different. No two people think or act the exact same way, and students are not carbon-copied robots that you can train and program. To expect every student to absorb information the same way would be ludicrous and unreasonable.
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Note-taking is a prime example of the difference in learning styles. An analytically wired student would be better at absorbing information through listening and barely writing down, mainly because of the way their memory works. A creative-type, however, would work better with color-coded flow charts and pictures. These are just wide examples though, because what works for some types of people will not work for others.
This being said, artistic students are still required to take math and science-based classes through out high school and the beginning of college, but most math or science-geared students are not required to complete electives or courses in a creative field. This concept is quite detrimental to students later in life. Artistic students could have a suffering GPA because of the way a subject is taught while students who avoid arts-based classes could lack public speaking skills and developed characteristics such as patience and criticism-tolerance. Requiring that a student take an intro-level acting class can improve confidence and create necessary and general "real world" skills.
Programs such as Kid smART have acknowledges the benefit of integrating the arts with education. Their statistics even show that students who participated in their program experience improved social skills, critical thinking skills, imagination, and creativity, along with many other improved aspects. This is proof that when education is played to a child's individual strengths, they tend to thrive in their environment. In addition, this also shows the benefits of participating freely in arts programs. Another study conducted in 2002, and was repeated by many other researchers, display that students who participated in the arts have acquired greater reading, writing, and math skills as well.
Overall, there is a highly unrealistic expectations for any students to learn the exact same way. Personalized learning may also be considered outrageous, but the idea of allowing a student to also have more freedom in the way they learn and are tested is not a wild suggestion. Arts should be considered just as important as science, technology, engineering, and mathematical skills, especially in the modern education system.
