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Jessan Groenendyk

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The most important thing to teach is how to think, not what to think. The arts do just that.

Schools do not place nearly enough emphasis on the arts. In tough economic times like these, if a schools budget is cut, the first thing to go is the arts. Teachers are told to help students prepare for standardized tests, like the SAT and the ACT, but they never teach children to think for themselves. Students are taught what to think, not how to think. Students need to be able to think critically and solve problems for themselves. In the real world, theorems and rules don't always help. We fill children's heads with facts and figures that they don't even know how to use in the real world, and then expect them to go use them in the real world. Students need the benefits the arts give. The arts foster creative thinking, hard work ethic, and give a sense of achievement that finding prepositional phrases just doesn't give. In the arts, students have to think for themselves, work for hours, and then show the world how well they have done. Can you imagine getting that much from memorizing the difference between H and Fe on the periodic table? Arts are the key to unlocking the creative future every child has, yet schools are stomping on that potential. Our schools need the creativity and joy that the arts bring.

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Topics: Education kills creativity arts education education
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    Jozef K

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    Nov 4 2011: The most important thing is to be able to learn cos U cant TEACH anione !!! There is no teaching but only learning, so the most important thing is to make the learning ability of people better by meking them acess to a technique which gives them rest and makes the brain functioning better and than making learning easier

  • Robert Galway 20+

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    Nov 1 2011: Learning the arts provides individual creative expression and use of sensory skills not always required by other school assignments. Typically, the arts demand attention to detail, practice to gain expertise, and enrich the lives of both practitioner and spectators. The arts also add balance to a school day, which is probably particularly important with the short attention spans of younger children.

    Critical thinking is a skill practiced while practicing the arts, but it is something worthy of learning for other reasons. This is a neat site that speaks to critical thinking:

    http://www.criticalthinking.org//

    Teaching good study skills, the importance of hard work, good work ethic, independent study, independent investigation, understanding public governments, and other skills are perhaps as important. A review of most age appropriate Scouting manuals show other activities that help add balance to a child's life. Core values include: Citizenship, Compassion, Cooperation, Faith, Health and Fitness, Honesty, Perseverance, Honesty, Resourcefulness, Respect, and Responsibility. Older children are trained in Swimming, First Aid, Citizenship, Leadership, Outdoor skills, and Life Skills in general. You can see more at this site:

    http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/ageguides.pdf

    I think it is more important to have balance in a child's life than extreme competition, academic, sports or other competitions. A child has a lifetime to learn to compete, handle stress and deal with adult issues. They have only one opportunity to be a child, to learn what they want to do with their lives, and to develop into good citizens and responsible adults.

  • John Doe

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    Nov 1 2011: In the past three years I have learned more about life in general then what I have learned inside of my lecture halls. We are definitely taught what to think rather than thinking for ourselves and developing an educated opinion. One of the problems I have seen is conformity; conformity is a problem on a micro level and not as a country, I do not want to be misunderstood as saying people should not follow rules. However, conformity on a micro level takes away from individuality that supports creativity and change. We are slowly evolving into clay and society forms how we act and retards our creativity, rather than letting our minds form our opinions into a work of art.

  • gale kooser 20+

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    Nov 1 2011: As an artist, I totally agree with you. Art goes hand in hand with just about all that is taught in schools but that is never mentioned. One thing that is also lacking are classes on common sense, which is one reason art takes a hit when costs go up.
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    Atta Barech

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    Nov 1 2011: art should be the part of modern education system, because only images can be identified by brain. brain does not know the thing by name but by image. through images we can inculcate that how to think. improving this phenomena that how to think teacher must be well trained himself first. positive thoughts or to be remain in positive sense the function and ability of brain improves and it can furnish this sites that how to think. every institute kills creativity if runs by ill trained faculty not only school.
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