This article will discuss why does art matter in school, and how the experience of doing visual arts can help our youth develop critical thinking, empathy, problem solving, learning to take notes, and apply what they learn to their everyday life.

Why does art matter in school?

Parents and educators should not always assume that art is a waste of time.

When thinking of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) subjects in school, many educators may dismiss art as a subject and perhaps even deem it as optional.

But in reality, art is not only an important part of school, but it can be a vital part of other subjects as well. Plenty of jobs use creativity and expression to succeed- whether in creating products and advertisements, problem-solving, and/or finding new uses for things.

In the United States, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, fewer than one-in-ten children currently pursue an art degree in college, yet, "in a society where everyone is artistic, more than 35 million people worked in the arts and cultural sector in 2012."

The vast majority of U.S. art classes are basic classes with an emphasis on the arts rather than a hands-on, applied approach that art students need in order to prepare themselves for the workforce.

According to Art Teacher Resource, the No. 1 reason that students drop out of art classes is that "they need to go back to school to take more classes," as opposed to a hands-on, applied approach that art students need in order to prepare themselves for the workforce.

If art is taken more seriously as an essential component of education, more than 35 million people working in the arts and cultural sector in 2012 will be better equipped to find jobs as well as a better understanding of the skills needed to succeed in the workplace.

What IS art and why does it matter?

In school, students learn to "map" their ideas to an object or to another person. This is done by creating charts, concept maps, or other organization tools.

When it comes to business, maps are a vital tool for visualizing your product or for understanding how to communicate a product to a customer. They're also used in legal and medical fields.

In fact, a map of the brain is how doctors examine and diagnose brain diseases and even how the cancer cells in the body are discovered. In any industry, using an art-based approach can help students work together as a group and problem-solve.

According to Adobe, "Map a concept, sketch it out, and then erase what you have so you have a clean slate for the next step. Map an idea into pixels. Use basic shapes, colors, and mediums to bring your concepts to life."

On one hand, this is the kind of "one-step-forward, two-steps-back" approach that we're all familiar with. On the other hand, using the process of layering and blending to create abstract shapes, textures, and symbols offers an outlet for children to learn visual processing.

Example: creative art lessons from aerodynamically dressed paper planes

Art allows children to channel their creative energy and learn to "map" their ideas to an object or to another person.

I recently visited a large museum in Colorado Springs, and I was amazed to see a room filled with aerodynamically-dressed paper airplanes.

The people who worked there were giving children the chance to create paper airplanes of their own design and then racing their airplanes against each other.

As an adult, the craftsmanship of the paper airplanes seemed to be lacking a bit, but the imaginative experience and the physical fitness required to fly a paper airplane took the focus away from any perceived flaws and allowed for a focus on the individual "wins" of the craft.

The same concept can be applied to the lessons and activities that art teachers in classrooms are incorporating into their lessons on art.

Imagine a child painting a picture on a large canvas or modeling clay into a complex sculpture that is the representation of a story. Instead of seeing the appearance of the finished product, what would happen if children were presented with only the initial canvas and clay?

Or what if they were told that the clay was supposed to be an ocean scene, but that they were not allowed to use any sea life, no sharks, dolphins, etc.?

Instead of an intense focus on the end-product, students would learn about the process that the artist used to create the art and how their perceptions changed as they added and "erased" colors or shapes, because each new color or shape became more interesting to them.

This could easily be used in the classroom as a form of writing prompts and as a way for students to learn to plan ahead and keep track of the progress of their project.