Extra arts education boosts students' writing scores -- and their compassion, big new study finds

[littlemissmartypants]

Extra arts education boosts students’ writing scores — and their compassion, big new study finds
BY MATT BARNUM - FEBRUARY 12, 2019

When you’re the big fish, it’s not OK to pick on the little fish just because you can.

That’s an important lesson for everyone. But some Houston first-graders got a particularly vivid demonstration in the form of a musical puppet show, which featured fish puppets and an underlying message about why it’s wrong to bully others.

The show left an impression on the students at Codwell Elementary, according to their teacher Shelea Bennett. “You felt like you were in that story,” she said. “By the end of the story they were able to answer why [bullying] wasn’t good, and why you shouldn’t act this way.”

The puppeteer’s show was part of an effort to expand arts education in Houston elementary and middle schools. Now, a new study shows that the initiative helped students in a few ways: boosting students’ compassion for their classmates, lowering discipline rates, and improving students’ scores on writing tests.

It’s just the latest study to find that giving students more access to the arts offers measurable benefits. And adding time for dance, theater, or visual arts isn’t at odds with traditional measures of academic success, according to the research — which amounts to one of the largest gold-standard studies on arts education ever conducted.

More at the link.

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2019/02/12/study-arts-education-boosted-compassion-and-writing-scores/

[catrose]

1. My orchestra stand partner had a pin I coveted. It read "Art Saves Lives."

I'm glad a study confirms what artists have known forever.

[underpants]

2. Two of the biggest factors in my daughter's development

I've said this many times to many people.

First the second we found out we were pregnant my wife went full healthy organic etc. this continued for several years. Almost every Saturday morning my wife and daughter would dive out to a farm and buy the week's meat poultry and eggs.

Second, my daughter showed some promise at art. When she was about 5 I randomly sent an email to a dean at a local art school (#1 art school in the country) and by pure happenstance we met my daughters art tutor who is basically part of the family. 4 years she came by almost every Sunday for 2 hours. We paid her well and pretty much paid her rent while she was in school.

I can't stress how much those two things had on my girls development.