Problems in Art Education
Art education is a part of school education that focuses on a wide range of arts, such as painting, drawing and sculpture. When looking at a subject like art education, there are opinions about whether it is a good skill for schools to teach or whether it is unnecessary and a waste of money. Art education has many problems that arise as a result of differing opinions.
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Unnecessary Problem
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The thoughts that arts are unnecessary is one of the main problems art education faces in society. The fact is that art is necessary to help children learn to look at problems and frustrations from different perspectives. This way of thinking is overlooked by those who consider art unnecessary because the skills learned in art cannot be tested on a standardized test.
Focus on Standardized Testing
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There is a focus in schools on standardized tests. According to the Boston Globe, this focus on standardized testing removes art from the educational picture because the arts are not on standardized tests. The Boston Globe points out that some supporters of arts in school use testing score averages to point out the necessity of art, but do so by using the wrong figures. Instead of a focus on the life skills students learn in art, the focus is put on the higher average scores that is not causational, but rather is correlational. This is a problem because the argument is weak and can ruin art education.
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Unemotional Art
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Art education has a problem with emotional expression in many schools. The art of past generations was filled with emotion and passion. Unfortunately, modern art styles, which are often abstract, can make it hard to determine emotions in the art. This lack of focus on feeling and expression in the art education programs can remove the creativity and expressiveness from the art.
Technical Art Versus Creative Art
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Art is often about creative expression, but an important part of art education is technical skill. A potential problem that might arise when teaching art is to focus too much on creativity without giving students the basic technical skills to build on. Technical skills are part of the way students see art, and while teachers might try opening eyes to creativity, it needs to have a basis in technical skills before it can expand to creativity. Leaving out one skill or the other leads to an incomplete education in art.
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References
- Photo Credit academy of fine arts image by Dmitry Nikolaev from Fotolia.com
