Study Shows Art Improves Critical Thinking Skills

After my semi-rant late last night about The Value of Art in School, it's good to see some of my assertions validated on the pages of the newspaper of record.

The New York Times is describing a study by the Guggenheim Museum which suggests that children become much better students with the presence of art in their education - Guggenheim Study Suggests Arts Education Benefits Literacy Skills.

The study found that students in the program performed better in six categories of literacy and critical thinking skills — including thorough description, hypothesizing and reasoning — than did students who were not in the program.

The No Child Left Behind policies of federal education spending are causing an emphasis on reading and writing and arithmatic to the detriment of art studies.

That may not a good thing. It's time for a change.