Argumentative Essay On The Arts

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” said by the famous artist Pablo Picasso. This quote is relevant in many school corporations. Throughout the country, education budgets are cut. Unfortunately, the first budgets to be eliminated are for the arts. The arts improve graduation rates, enhance overall intelligence, and improve SAT scores. A topic often argued is that the money is being wasted on the arts and required academics are more essential. Some people believe students should focus on the required classes because they are needed to advance to higher education. Currently, the academically required classes do not include the arts; however, the arts should be required because they strengthen an
All, in fact, are positive. One topic is the rise of high school graduation rates being related to students having an increase in creative classes. In 2010, the Missouri Art Council conducted a study that compared graduation rates of the students participating in fine art courses to the ones with no participation in fine art courses. The study showed that school districts with higher levels of student participants in the arts also reported higher graduation rates.(Sheuler) The graph provided showed districts with high art participant rate had a graduation rate of 91.2 %, this percentage increased roughly 4%. This evidence helps support the claim of making the arts academically required, because art education has been proven to boost graduation rates. An increase of 4% of students getting a high school diploma is a huge impact on helping more students achieve success and become better prepared for their future. This helps make the student a well rounded person and reduces the chances of a student becoming a high school dropout. A well rounded student is positive, creative, and
Opponents of the arts may also believe that the other academically required classes are more important. These are arguments; however, they have faults in them. Creative classes are not a waste of money because studies have proven that the arts improve a student's performance in other classes which improve their overall intelligence. Other academic classes might be more important in preparing you for after high school;however, studies have shown that the arts help improve SAT score which is required for higher education. For example, a study conducted in 2000 showed that students with 4 or more years of art courses had an average score of 497 on the math portion of the SAT;however, students with zero years of art courses had an average of 473 on the math portion.(Vaugn) This study shows that the amount of art courses a student take can greatly impact their SAT scores. Raising SAT scores can also have a huge impact in receiving scholarships for college. The arts are as equally important in improving a student as is any other class in high