The arts teach students to:

	Understand human experiences, both past and present;
	Adapt to and respect others' ways of thinking, working, and expressing themselves;
	Learn artistic modes of problem solving, which bring an array of expressive, analytical, and developmental tools to every human situation;
	Understand the influence of the arts, in their power to create and reflect cultures, in the impact of design on virtually all we use     in daily life, and in the interdependence of work in the arts with the broader worlds of ideas and actions;
	Make decisions in situations where there are no standard answers;
	Analyze nonverbal communication and make informed judgments about cultural products and issues; and,
	Communicate thoughts and feelings in a variety of modes, giving them a vastly more powerful repertoire of self-expression.

Source-National Standards for Education in the Arts

The following are findings reported in Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning  (Fiske, 1999) that should be noted by every parent, teacher, and administrator:

	The arts reach students not normally reached, in ways and methods not normally used.  (This leads to better student             attendance and lower dropout rates.)
	It changes the learning environment to one of discovery.  (This often re-ignites the love of learning in students tired of just being         fed facts.)
	Students connect with each other better.  (This often results in fewer fights, greater understanding of diversity, and greater                 peer support.)
	The arts provide challenges to students of all levels.  (Each student can find his/her own level from basic to gifted.)
	Students learn to become sustained, self-directed learners.  (The student does not just become an outlet for stored facts from         direct instruction, but seeks to extend instruction to higher levels of proficiency.)
	The study of the fine arts positively impacts the learning of students of lower socioeconomic status as much or more than             those of a higher socioeconomic status.  (Twenty-one percent of students of low socioeconomic status who had studied music     scored higher in math versus just eleven percent of those who had not. By the senior year, these figures grew to 33 percent             and 16 percent, respectively, suggesting a cumulative value to music education.)

	Research in multiple intelligences, the brain, and how the emotions strongly effect learning, supports hands-on, experiential         learning through the fine arts.
	A quality fine arts education program provides students opportunities to acquire basic skills in kinesthetic, musical, spatial,             and visual intelligence, applicable to learning in all other subject areas.
	Almost all of the information we receive in the learning process is acquired kinesthetically, auditorally, and visually.
	The fine arts help children better understand concepts measured on the TAKS tests. The fine arts "essential knowledge & skills" correlate with, support, and reinforce reading, language arts, science, and math. They help teach shapes, color recognition,             size differentiation, letter and number recognition, phonic recognition, sequencing, following directions, hand eye and motor coordination, kinesthetic and spatial relationships, and direction and location.
	The fine arts develop valued higher order and creative thinking skills such as memory, various forms of communication, and the         ability to compare and contrast, group and label, explain cause and effect, assess significance, make predictions, and frame             and test hypotheses.
	The fine arts improve many students' self-concepts and self-actualization, attitude towards school and, as a result, the students' attendance improves, and the special needs of the "at risk" student are met.
	Research shows not only that the fine arts are beneficial in themselves, but also that their introduction into a school's curriculum causes marked improvement in math, reading, science and other subjects.
	The College Board reported that SAT scores are considerably higher for students involved in the arts, and that the fine arts are         key to student success in college. Test scores, attendance, and college entry are higher, and drop-out rates are lower, in                 arts-centered schools in Texas.
	The fine arts are vastly important to technology and multimedia production, as evidenced in their use in books, magazines, advertisement, television commercials, music videos, video games, and blockbuster films such as Jurassic Park, Twister,                 Toy Story, Mission Impossible, Independence Day, Space Jam, Lost World, Men in Black and Titanic.
	The arts generate over $300 billion annually as an industry! The arts represent 6% of the Gross National Product (GNP).

Source-National Assembly of State Arts Agencies