Finding Wonder Through Arts Education
by Sarah Friesen, Director of Marketing & Communications
Sydney Gurewitz Clemens once said, “Art has the role in education of helping children become like themselves instead of more like everyone else.”
Empowering a student to discover, explore and express their uniqueness and individuality has the wonderful outcome of sparking success not only in academics, but in their overall wellbeing.
Years of data and research shows that access to arts programming is directly linked to the life-long successes we want for our children and their future. Does this mean we need to mold our students into the next Picasso, Mozart or Steven Spielberg? Of course not. What it does mean however, is that when we put a stronger emphasis on facilitating moments of wonder and creativity, we are empowering them to do what is innately natural to them; to work with their hands, to use their imagination and to think outside the box (or in this case – your basic lined paper or worksheet). This is our goal at River Valley School.
Through the fine arts, children experience various artists, styles and mediums all while building and uniquely demonstrating a knowledge of colour, composition, value, and form. In drama (or while participating in dramatic play), students not only learn to be great actors, but also how to express themselves as confident communicators and collaborators. Through music, students use their bodies and voices as their first instruments to strengthen their cognitive abilities, memory and focus; all skills we know are important for reading, math, language development and overall brain health. Within classroom curricular work, artistic muscles can be “flexed” through hands-on projects where students use art supplies, loose parts and recycled materials to creatively demonstrate their understanding of concepts and ideas.
By utilizing arts programming to its full potential, we are not only contributing to this generation of children’s success, but empowering them to be proud of who they are, what they create and what impact they can have on the world around them.
