Though arts and music education is slowly disappearing in schools due to budget cuts, statistics show that art benefits students.
Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit organization, reports that students involved in the arts are more likely to succeed in school. Students with low socioeconomic status and low participation in the arts have a dropout rate of 22%, yet low socioeconomic students with a high participation in the arts have a dropout rate of only four percent. Americans for the Arts has also stated that students highly involved in the arts have historically earned higher GPAs and scored higher on the SAT than students without arts education.
Furthermore, low-income students who are highly engaged in the arts are more likely to attain employment, complete college, and volunteer in their communities than low-income students with little involvement in the arts. According to Americans for the Arts, 72 percent of business leaders say creativity is the primary skill they look for when hiring.
“When kids develop a passion for creating beauty, whether on a canvas or a clarinet, that passion grounds them in something bigger than themselves and makes them into more confident, joyful, successful people,” says Alexandra Fleeman, who co-founded an online learning program called MusicProfessor.
Not only does the arts benefit the students, but it also makes them smile.
“I always look forward to going to orchestra during school. I learn something new everyday and I get to play music with other people,” says twelve year old student Nicole Joh of Paul Revere Middle School. “Playing music makes me happy.”
