The Decline Of Art And Design Within Education

In recent history art and design was a requirement within education for those in high school completing their education. Today its importance has in some cases slipped, if not having been totally ignored.

This shift in education is not localized to the United States but has been felt around the globe.

In the United States now 10 States do not require any form of arts for graduating. Others offer optional waivers, and with alternative paths to a diploma art and design can be excluded.

Within the UK and other EU nations there has also been a decline in art education programs. This has led some to say that it is being left out for it is not seen as important.

There are certainly negative implications to the development of children as the arts suffer, yet also something is to be taken from overall shifts within broader industry.

Schools such as SCAD specialize in preparing students for this changing industry. They must do this with no support from lower education. This is a clear picture of the hurdle students must cross.

Why Art and Design Is Important In Education

The significance for art and design within education serves multiple practical purposes, and places a certain focus on the children. The most significant in my opinion is due to the need to expose kids to the arts for their exploration and development.

Not every child will be a mathematician or a scientist. We are not all born with the same gifts.

If a child is not exposed to the arts within their developing years it may be difficult for them to discover their talents. Significant developmental bridges are best crossed while young that create neural pathways which cannot be replaced.

For those who are not gifted in the arts it does not remove its importance. Every field requires tapping into the creative part of the mind.

The very nature of different art forms requires an individual to step out of their natural box. This creativity also helps to cultivate other aspects of life development.

Specifically the arts aid in developing problem solving and critical thinking skills, not to mention self confidence. It also teaches artistic expression and can provide therapeutic expression.

Art requires choices to be made which focuses on a process to arrive at an outcome. This process focuses on expression rather than solutions. It creates a conduit for safe and valuable insight to the why behind that expression.

Creative process is something which is difficult to teach within any other format. It requires one to experience the journey to arrive at a conclusion in order to reap the benefit.

Insight To Creative Expression In The Argument For The Arts

The argument for the arts within education has often been fought on other fronts. The way in which the battle has been waged has left a gap within political understanding.

Those who wish to see art within schools have a hard time providing conclusive evidence to its importance within education.

Allow me to provide conclusive evidence from those who live an Artistic Life. It would be wise to note that Artistic Development is truly more about internal self development and well being.

The very philosophy of art being about life is tied to identity and how one views their role within the world. This philosophy impacts every individual within every role we live within.

The necessity for discovering artistic inspiration itself requires education and historical context to our past.

Learning who we compete against in life is more about facing ourselves rather than others. It is through art that we can define limits, and break them.

Mathematics and science show a functional outcome to its purpose in a measured way across every field in our society. Art and design is more about developmental growth.

Therefore its benefit is not as easy to measure in a quantitative way. Education is becoming more about producing widgets that conform to standards for an economy, and less about cultivating real growth.

We the people are not machines for your society.

Shifts From Art And Design To Other Industry

One of the problems we face is proof of a more systemic issue than a schools decision to place less focus on art.

Within recent years according to Forbs there has been an estimated 4% decline in those graduating with the intent on teaching the arts. There is no doubt that universities who’s main focus is within this field have suffered in recent years.

If one were to look at universities which focus more on engineering or sciences there has been growth within associated fields.

Nursing has seen an increase as well as anything involving the tech industry. Some have argued that this is in part due to an decrease in focus within the arts in early education.

I am not one to believe this reasoning. The shift seems to be far more economically driven.

There is no doubt that someone who has a degree within the arts will face greater difficulty in finding a job within traditional fields. Many students choose to not battle this and decide on an alternative course for their life.

This abandonment of their natural born gifts is economically driven. As this begins to play out downstream within the workforce, finding art teachers becomes more difficult.

The question becomes whether or not this will create a need where the industry will rebound, or will art and design continue to be seen as unnecessary?

Viewing the argument against arts and design from a quantitative standpoint is to only see measurement by dollars. We lose significant cultural growth to become a society that creates nothing but only consumes.

Industry will continue to focus on what either solves problems or provides a profit to societal structures. Art and design has always seemed to exist on the periphery as a byproduct of luxury rather than a need.

Economic Impact Upon Art And Design Within Schools

No doubt that economics play a role to these decisions but the question becomes in what way and why? States seem to pour more money into education each year.

I remember the argument for allowing the lottery for the purpose of funding education. Property taxes continue to rise and we continue to pay into these systems. Yet each year we see empty promises with no return of investment.

If you ask me, the government is what is the bad investment. If viewed as a corporation, they would have had their doors chained shut long ago.

What is happening to the money which is supposed to be reserved for programs like the art and design?

How is it we pay more for these systems yet continue to get less and less out of them as time goes by?

Is it misappropriation? Should the citizens require accountability to know what is happening? Is this systemic to greater problems which we should be aware of?

As you can see this issue can be brought about to ask many questions. Many of these questions the governments would ignore. Nevertheless this is merely one aspect of a much broader issue that began some years ago.

The economic declines since 2008 to present day has forever altered our world. Today people often need to work two lower paying jobs to meet their needs while we are told jobs are on the rise.

It is for these reasons that we began to see the shift in university education away from the arts and into other fields. Additionally older generations went back to school to retool their professional life in order to be more competitive within markets which became uncertain.

It is here we begin to see other impacts within the art and design industry.

Traditional arts have begun to fade while other fields involving technology have increased. These fields range in focus, but involve graphic design, video game development, virtual reality, and New Media Art.

It would seem that art is becoming less subjective, and more design based for a specific purpose for a product. Art is less about the importance of art to culture, and more focused on profit being the culture.