Art is Not Enrichment

I used to hear of schools cutting their Arts programs, think, "Oh, what a pity those children won't receive the enrichment that Art programs offer," and go on with my day.  I viewed Art as an important part of my children's development, a wonderfully enriching arena to which I ought to take my children for regular visits.  I provided my young children with art supplies, from crayons and markers to play dough and finger paint, and on the days when I was actually worried about my kids making a mess, I armed myself with a hot soapy washcloth to defend against the inevitable marks on my walls and a shop vac to clean up the play dough crumbs.   When they came of school age, though, Art took a back seat to Grammar, Reading, Writing, Math, History, and Science.  I found we had a lot more to do than sit around swirling our fingers through paint and making play dough snakes.  Art had become a luxury, something we pulled out on rainy days or days when sleepless nights left me feeling not up to the task of reading a chapter of our History book.  Or when my children drove me far enough up the wall for me to want to cry, "I don't care what you do.  Just find something QUIET and DO IT!"  I didn't completely neglect Art.  I just didn't go out of my way to make it happen on a regular basis.

Over the last year, I have gotten to know my second child a little better, and he has given me a new appreciation for Art.  He has shown me that Art is not a luxury, nor an enrichment program, but at least for some, a necessity.  And I do mean necessity.  Art is essential to mental and emotional health and stability.  Without it, some of us just can't cope very well.  Art takes us out of our immediate concerns and annoyances and allows us to express ourselves.  In the process, Art soothes frayed emotions and wearied minds.  Art is indispensable.

Our journey began with The Art Box, or at least with the idea of The Art Box, since we never actually got a box.  If you haven't heard of The Art Box, you haven't talked to many parents of energetic, busy, fidgety, bouncy, button-pressing children.  The Art Box is a sort of therapy for such children.  You sit the child in a quiet corner with his special art supplies, and let him pour his energy into Art instead of into driving his mother and everyone within a two mile radius thoroughly and hopelessly insane.  It works.  I'd send a frustrated, frustrating child to the table with crayons and paper.  He'd disappear into his creation and return to me with a beautiful picture and a calm, tender, and blissfully happy demeanor.  After awhile, I noticed that when he was having a particularly grumpy morning, he'd often gravitate toward his art supplies before I even thought to intervene.  He had learned, consciously or not, that Art soothed him.

We enrolled him in an art class last fall, which was the highlight of his week all year long.  "Is it Thursday yet?"  became his constant refrain.  He enjoyed the class immensely, probably in part because he was blessed with a teacher who seemed to quietly delight in his ability to conceive his own angle for an art project and his determination to follow through.  I found on the behavioral front, that though we still had issues to deal with, the promise and the after-effects of Art Class combined to make our lives run so much more smoothly than they had before he started the class.  When the class ended for the year, John began to be a little antsy.  My growing suspicion that we needed to incorporate more Art into our weekly schedule turned into a hard and fast conviction.

And so as I plan out our coming school year, I'm carving out of each week a morning for Art (and a couple other subjects we can't afford to skip a day a week).  John has flourished with a little bit of Art, and I can't wait to see what he'll do with a little bit more.  I can't wait to see his face and his siblings' faces light up as they explore and create in the coming year.  I can't wait to see the good that Art will do them as human beings made in the image of an extraordinarily creative God.

Because that's the bottom line... We are made in the image of a God who created heaven and earth and everything in them.  To ignore Art is to ignore a huge part of who we are.  We are creative creatures for whom Art is not an option, not a luxury, not "enrichment."   Art is not, as I once thought, someplace we take our children for regular visits.  It is a part of who we are.  We cut Art programs from our schools and neglect to incorporate Art into our home schools and homes at our own risk.  We cannot afford to skimp in this area.  Art is essential - more dramatically essential to some than it is to others, but essential nonetheless.  Plus, it's fun!  :)