American society has set up an education system that revolves around subjects that they believe are more important. Therefore the school day is focused all around math, science, reading and writing. While I don’t disagree that these subjects are important, what is also important to a developing child is the arts, both visual and auditory. Schools have cut back funding for art and music programs in low income communities, but have extended the school days to get in longer class periods for hard curriculums. Kids in public school are getting all this information crammed in their brains non-stop with no creative outlet to resort to after a hard day of academics. According to the Chicago Sun Times there was “about 1,700 teacher positions lost, 98 taught visual or performing arts and 61 taught music” (Fitzpatrick ,2013). That means that a total of 159 arts programs were cut in facilitators and just cut as a curriculum overall.
American society views art as a skill that becomes a hobby. Art is viewed as something that can be as a pass time but in reality arts programs have positive effects on students both academically and in life. A study conducted in Australia that was published in the Journal of Educational Psychology says that “students who participate in dance, drama, music, and visual arts showed more positive academic and personal wellbeing outcomes than students who were not as involved in the arts” (Australian Government, Australia Council for the Arts ,2013). Therefore art should be considered just as an important curriculum in our schools as math or reading, because it helps students in the exact same ways that the educational system believes that math and reading d