How Arts Education Helps Children Develop Critical Thinking Skills
Arts education is often overlooked by schools. It's easy to understand the benefits of history or math, but why does learning an instrument or how to draw matter? For one, art plays an incredibly important role in expanding children’s critical thinking skills. It exercises their imagination and creativity, and these skills help them in all aspects of education.
What is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking is the ability to understand, interpret, and respond to any situation, which allows you to create an informed and well-reasoned judgment or decision. Children practice this ability when doing a challenging activity like figuring out their homework or playing a game. Critical thinking allows children to understand the world around them as they connect different ideas. This skill often requires a bit of imagination to generate creative responses, which children often learn through the arts.
Creating Solutions and Ideas
Art is a form of expression. It’s a way to make your emotions or ideas tangible. Creativity can blossom in many different ways, such as thinking outside the box. Allowing children to foster this creative thinking helps them learn how to explore solutions within an academic setting. Creativity helps children explore their imaginations and see where their ideas take them. Visualizing how a rocketship looks during an art class isn’t that different from visualizing how to solve a math problem. Creative thinking exercises muscles in the brain that might not be used in strictly academic classes.
Connecting With The World
Participating in or watching art has the power to evoke emotion. Artists express their thoughts through their art. When children get to participate in this process, it helps them connect with their emotions on a new level. They begin to search for the deeper meaning in the content they absorb and become more connected with the world around them. Allowing children time to process their emotions and their personal responses pushes them to respond in thoughtful ways when faced with a challenge. Arts education inspires connection, and that connection can help children think more carefully about their own decisions.
Collaborating With Classmates
Communication is a skill that you never grow out of. Art often requires group collaboration, which can be difficult when many different personalities work towards the same goal. Children who collaborate with others early on are better equipped to take on the challenge later in life. Arts education pushes creativity, thinking, and imagination. Through artistic collaboration, children can understand other people’s perspectives and hear new ideas they wouldn’t think of themselves. This can foster open mindedness and teach them how to incorporate critical thinking into a group setting.
Arts education is just as important as any other field of academia. At our Titusville private school, we know the strength of growing critical thinking through art. With over 57 years of academic excellence, St. Teresa Catholic School provides a quality education that goes from PreK-3 through 8th grade. To learn more about why St. Teresa is the perfect fit for you and your student, contact us today.