Why is it important to teach art?

I feel as though I would have answered this question differently just three months ago. Art has been a quintessential part of my existence and identity for as long as I can remember, but just this last summer I attempted to teach drawing and share my love for it. I noticed a few things.
One was that each student grew in confidence. They had no idea they were capable of creating a masterpiece.

Whenever I tell someone I'm an art major, I often get an shrugging response of "Haha, cool, I can't even draw a stick figure" or "I have no artistic ability." What they don't understand is that they do. Creativity is intrinsic to all human beings. They don't understand what my students learned.

Everyone has a basic understanding of math, but that is only because at some point, someone walked them step by step through math problems until they gained the confidence to work through problems on their own. Seldom does the average person practice algebra in their every day life, but being required to learn it gave them skills of logic that are beneficial.

What boggles me is that art is much the same way, but people don't treat it as such! Anyone can be taught step by step how to draw (just ask Bob Ross). Art, like math, involves a process of encountering errors and coming up with how to fix them. Like it said in The Arts and the Creation of Mind, every medium in art poses a wide range of problems you have to work through. PLUS it makes you use your imagination, something math never made me do!
I saw my students gain a sense of pride and confidence in their work, but they also learned that anything worth while comes with a price. I saw them persevere through dilemmas, analyze their work and recognize how to improve. “Arts education helps develop the skills necessary to persistently and adaptively work through problems,” said Kim Kanatani, Deputy Director and Gail Engelberg Director of Education, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. “By asking students to think like artists, we are imparting 21st-century skills in encouraging them to approach problems with creativity and analytic thought rather than just recitation of facts.” I love that! I feel that so much of my education has been mindless recitation of facts. Thinking like an artist is something everyone should have the opportunity of doing.

Like Sir Ken Robinson suggested, we need to develop our whole beings, not just one side of our brains. In his lecture, he presented the idea that no child could know if they were creatively minded unless presented the opportunity to explore and grow in things besides academics. People seem to think that there's not room enough to give students a well rounded education, but having things like art increases a child's likelihood of succeeding. According to a study in '93, SAT takers who had four year’s study in the arts scored 53 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 37 points higher on the math portion than did the students who had no arts coursework. The arts obviously has an effect on academic performance along with developing personality and a sense of self and accomplishment outside the academic realm.

According to an official statement by the U.S. department of education responding to why art was required in the No Child Left Behind Act,
"Similar to English, math, science and the other core subjects, the arts (dance, music, theater, and visual arts) are challenging subjects with rigorous content and achievement standards at the state and national levels. They require highly qualified teachers who challenge all students, not just those who are considered artistically talented, to perform works of art, create their own works, and respond to works of art and the ideas they impart.

In addition to studying the arts for their own sake, experiencing and making works of art benefits students in their intellectual, personal, and social development, and can be particularly beneficial for students from economically disadvantaged circumstances and those who are at risk of not succeeding in school. Research studies point to strong relationships between learning in the arts and fundamental cognitive skills and capacities used to master other core subjects, including reading, writing, and mathematics."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

I was a novice art teacher last summer, but I saw first hand that every kid in my class gained not only an understanding of color and proportion, but also patience, grace under pressure, and a new way of seeing. Most importantly, I know each one of them left with the thought of "I'm good at art." The best part of my experience was always taking the art they'd focused on for hours and revealing it to them from more of a distance. The satisfaction and pride can't be described. Getting a good test score can be great too, but nothing compares to that. Nothing can replace that. I think anyone skeptical of the arts in public school would have much of the same reaction- satisfaction in the long run. Art being a beneficial and valid thing to learn and teach is not just a theory. Art enriches lives and that's a fact. It must be taught.

*Sir Ken Robinson, ideas worth spreading
*The Arts and the Creation of the Mind
*http://www2.ed.gov/teachers/how/tools/initiative/updates/040826.html
*http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/press-room/releases/3400-aps-release