Arguing against the elimination of art/music/theatre in a school - Term Paper Example

Adrian Fenty was the fifth mayor of the District of Columbia from 2007 to 2011. Over this period, he introduced a large number of reforms in spheres like education, public housing, and tourism. He actively supported the role of humanities in education and promoted humanities in education. According to him, humanities are required for students to develop creativity and to think critically. These humanities will offer students insight in all areas of liberal arts including politics, poetry, business models and paintings.

Fenty opines that study of human experience is the very basis of one’s knowledge about the world. That means culture, art, history are all dependent on humanities. Thus, it becomes evident that humanities and art are linked inextricably. Thus, the argument that art should not be eliminated from schools is in support of the view held by Fenty. The first point in support of this view comes from Doug Israel (2012) of the Center for Arts Education. The scholar opines that arts are a necessary part of well-rounded education, and that those schools with good emphasis on arts have reduced drop-out rates and better academic performance.

In fact, a two year study in nearly 200 public schools in New York proved that the schools with higher success rates all have higher emphasis on arts, more arts teachers, and more chances of cultural interaction. Yet another national study points out that the issue of student disengagement that precedes dropping out can be reduced if they have chances to take part in band and chorus, dance, and other theater productions (Israel, 2012). In addition are opportunities like production of literary pieces, and exhibitions of art work.

Thus, one can say that in ensuring student retention through engagement, art has an important role to play. Similarly, the students who get access to art are getting better education because of the overall