Listen to Sonya, a high school student from northwest Ohio, discuss her passion for dance and the performing arts. She shares with us how the arts are often an afterthought in the curriculum and lack the proper funding to provide more opportunities for students to explore their interests.
Facts about the arts in education:
- Students with high arts participation and low socioeconomic backgrounds have a 4 percent dropout rate—five times lower than their low socioeconomic status peers. Low-income students highly engaged in the arts are twice as likely to graduate college as their peers with no arts education.Two-thirds of public school teachers say that other subjects “get crowded out by extra attention being paid to math or language arts,” such as art, music, foreign language, and social studies.More information about the benefits of the arts in education.
(00:43) A little bit about Sonya
Sonya is a big supporter and active participant in the arts. For the last eight years, Sonya has been a dancer. In addition, she’s been a singer for two years and recently started acting. She’s looking to attend a performing arts school in the near future such as Juilliard or Michigan.
(1:18) The arts as an afterthought
While Sonya looked for a high school to attend, she found that many of them tended to think of the arts as an afterthought, or as something for students to do when they are bored. She notes how they don’t notice or understand that the arts provide a setting to teach students life skills. Sonya highlights that acting, in particular, has been helpful for men and women in the business world. She explains how former actors and actresses are able to better project and present themselves.
(2:13) Involvement in the arts outside of school
Robert notes that with the lack of arts opportunities in school, Sonya, among other students, have to seek outside sources, which can often be costly. When students are provided with opportunities to practice their singing, acting, dancing, painting or whatever else they enjoy in the arts in school, it’s one less barrier they have to overcome. They don’t have to look or pay for outside classes or clubs to meet this interest. While the arts do require funding to run successfully in a school, the benefits and skills they provide to learners are invaluable.
(2:44) Dance as a passion
Sonya explains that dance is helpful even for everyday life. Having practiced ballet for eight years, among other dances, she had other opportunities in the arts open up to her, including acting and singing. In regards to becoming a Broadway performer, she notes that many people get their start by doing ballet as it helps them branch out to other types of dances and skills. Ballet or dance also helps participants build confidence and skills such as time management, creativity, accountability and so much more.
(4:19) What are some of the ways that educators or schools can help support the artist?
Sonya suggests that educators intertwine their subjects with the arts more. For example, her social studies teachers ties art in through history, which makes learning more interesting for Sonya as she’s able to make connections between the two seemingly different subjects. Or the play Romeo and Juliet that many high school students read as a requirement connects with acting and dancing.
(5:02) Using project based learning to support arts in the classroom
In education, project based learning or PBL, encourages students to research something they are passionate about and tie it back to something else. Robert explains how Sonya could look at history through the lens of art to spark her interest in learning about it. Picking up off this idea, Sonya talks about all of the different subjects that connect to art such as music and math, and further dives into art supporting students in paying attention during class. Drawing can aid students in learning and remembering information.
(6:53) Multitasking for learners
Whether multitasking is a good thing or not, students today often experience this constantly. While these multitasking abilities are being established, children devote more of their newfound skills to the various digital technologies at their disposal. They have multiple devices to manage with multiple tabs, and that’s all while still interacting with the world around them. Sonya explains that she often multitasks at home, listening to music while studying or doing homework.
(7:49) Monitoring in the classroom
Robert poses the question to Sonya whether her teachers use any software in the classroom to see what the students are doing. Sonya explains that her school uses GoGuardian and that the experience is frustrating because the software will watch what they are doing and send them notifications. Sonya tends to draw during the class, which she believes helps her learn and stay on task, but mentions how the software flags that as an off-task activity. She uses drawing as a way to make connections to the information and refers back to that during tests.
(9:47) Who are the teachers that get you the most excited?
As educator Rita F. Pierson said during her TED Talk, "Kids don't learn from people they don't like.” During her presentation, she made an inspiring call to educators to “believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, personal level.” This idea is something that Sonya highlights. Being able to have an open dialogue between educators and learners creates a positive relationship, where the students feel more comfortable and supported. Sonya advises teachers to try and make those connections by having conversations with their learners.
About Sonya
Sonya is a high school student from northwest Ohio. She is a lover of the performing arts. Sonya shares her passion for dance and how the arts are often an afterthought in the curriculum and lack the proper funding to provide more opportunities for students to explore their interests.
Host: Robert Bailey
Producers: Lindsay Dixon-Garcia and Joshua Rodriguez
Intro/Closing voice: Tessa Garcia
Intro/Closing music: "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/