ASK A TEACHER
Art

with Nancy Downing
Q: Our children’s school district is making the decision whether to add Art as a subject in the
curriculum. Could you give me some pros?

A: Art is not just an educational “extra” any more. It is essential to learning. Here are some reasons you
can share with the school district for wanting Art to be a part of your children’s curriculum:

  • Art teaches about the history and culture of a child’s world and the world around him
  • Enriches self-expression, creativity, and imagination
  • Enhances problem-solving skills and critical thinking
  • Improves making evaluations and judgments
  • Teaches working cooperatively in groups
  • Teaches what goes into achieving a goal
  • Builds self-esteem
  • Teaches how to communicate ideas in images since we live in a visual
    world

Now as a parent become an influential spokesman for Art in the schools:

  • Meet with your principal to discuss the issue
  • Have a PTA meeting to build parent awareness about why art education is an important part of
    the curriculum
  • Find out if other schools in your area teach art
  • Find out if your state has an art education curriculum or set of guidelines
  • Attempt to be on the school district committee looking into this issue
  • Finally, encourage other parents to maintain contact with school administrators and board
    members to demonstrate their continuing support for art education.



Copyright © by Nancy Downing.  All rights reserved.
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Nancy has been an educator for 30 years and is currently a special education teacher.  
She is the former Center Director of LearningRx in Little Rock, Arkansas. She has
received local, state, and national recognition for her development of Downfeld
Phonics, a multi-sensory reading program.  Nancy also wrote curriculum for an
educational technology company.   

Nancy is a single mother of three children:  one with learning differences, one gifted,
and one who has to work for his grades.  Not only does she know what it is like to teach
all these different learning styles at school, but she has the experience of dealing with
all aspects of each twenty-four seven.  
Train a child in the way he should go,  
and when he is old he will not turn from it.
(Proverbs 22:6)