Importance_of_Art_and_Music_Classes

In my neighborhood, there is a heated discussion among parents concerning the content of curriculum for younger school children. Many parents hold the opinion that art and music classes are not essential to the education for younger school children, and therefore their children should not be required to take these classes. Contrary to the notion of these people is my hearted agreement to the idea to include art and music into the required classes for younger school children. First of all, there might be one or two benefits to exclude art and music course from the required courses in a short term; nonetheless, all those benefits will vanish when compared with the advantages of including them in the long run. Those parents would argue that since art and music will not be examined in the subsequent entrance examinations, it is a totally waste of their children's time and energy to attend these classes, and in addition taken these courses would impair their children's performance on the core courses, such as math and language, for the lack of time spent on them. However, as I see it, the goal of education for younger school children should not fixate on what will be examined in the future, but the healthy development of the children. And taking art and music classes will have a positive effect on those core classes, and promote learning in the long run. To take art and music classes, younger school children could find a time to relax their mind. So young are these school children that they can not properly deal with a school day fraught with math and language classes. It is at that time too heavy a burden for them to bear. As it is already a convention to incorporate physical exercises into the daily school life to relax and strengthen students' body, isn't it necessary to take into consideration that we also include art and music to relax and enlighten their mind' For example, in a drawing class the young children can learn how to use brushes and paints to express their inner feelings and try to appreciate the great paintings. In such a way, they can release their negative feelings, such as stress and anger, accumulated in busy school days. Therefore, taking art and music in addition to those core courses will improve the mental development of younger school children. In addition, taking these courses can promote learning in other classes as well. For instance, younger children can obtain the ability to skillfully coordinate their body to perform music themselves, and enlighten their spirits through beautiful musical movements. Also, a recent research conducted in my neighborhood has demonstrated that younger school children with art and music in their curriculum showed better results in the study efficiency, class performance and examination scores than those without. In a word, the advantages of incorporating art and music into the curriculum of younger school children clearly outweigh its shortcomings. More and more parents in my community come to realize the merits of art and music for their children and prefer those schools that offer not only excellent math and language courses but also wonderful art and music courses for their young children. It is definitely the wise choice to make art and music an integral part of early school life in the long run.