The Community School of Davidson’s Arts Education program encompasses multiple disciplines: computer arts, dance, music, theatre arts, visual arts and woodworking.
A comprehensive understanding of one or more of these disciplines, as stated by the National Standards for Arts Education along with North Carolina’s Standard Course of Study, are to be accomplished by each student throughout the K-12 program.
The purpose for teaching the arts is to enable students to develop the capacities to create, perform, and respond with understanding, critical judgment, and appreciation of works of art.
Specific areas of development:
Symbolic understanding: understanding and using multiple modes to represent and communicate ideas and feelings
Creativity: originality, flexibility, and elaboration in making what was imagined
Critical thinking: developing and applying criteria and standards for making judgments about quality
Persistence: sustaining concentration and attention to a task
Resilience: managing challenges; overcoming frustration and failure
Achievement motivation: the desire to succeed in fulfilling goals and expectations
Engagement: absorption in the content, processes and pleasures of learning
The arts are essential parts of the human experience, they are not a frill. We recommend that all students study the arts to discover how human beings communicate not only with words, but through music, dance, and the visual arts.
Dr. Ernest Boyer, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Source: Arts Education Partnership
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