Ada Gater remembers the look on 10-year-old John Smith’s face when he finished his very first painting.

“There was a pride, a satisfaction that comes from the knowledge that you did something on your own – that it is yours,” recalls the Marshall Elementary teacher.  “It is one of the greatest joys I receive from teaching.”

For Gater and other teachers and principals on the front lines of education, there’s no convincing that the arts are not an “extra,” but an essential tool in their educational tool box. Just ask them.

“This program is a survival tool for all children, but especially for the students right on the edge of missing the complete learning journey,” said Gater. “I know first hand that this program just works – it restores the zest of learning, it creates more well rounded students and it creates an optimal learning environment.”

The best learning is active, hands-on and integrates arts and academics.  Students not only learn about all forms of art and creative self expression more deeply, they also learn other subjects more deeply. Students explore language arts through music and song writing, imagery, and rhyme, they explore social studies through plays, dance, paper making, music, photographs, and story telling from different cultures.
Ask for More Arts is breathing new life into classrooms and schools by providing new ways to connect students to learning experiences. And arts education is one of the most effective tools for retaining students at-risk for leaving school. Students who are struggling in math, reading, and writing are often students who demonstrate a real talent and passion for the arts.

“Students retain information because they are interested and actively engaged in what they are learning,” said Margie Thompson, a teacher at McWillie Elementary. “The arts create that connection.”

Disengagement from education often begins early, in elementary school. While remediating deficit areas, art instruction can become a reason to stay in school to restore confidence and inspire students to re-engage in other academic areas.   We also know that the arts can help improve overall educational outcomes because the arts support problem solving, creativity, critical thinking, collaborative learning and self confidence – the kind of skills that are essential for work in the 21st century.

For these reasons, quality education includes opportunities for arts experiences in music, visual arts, dance, and drama which support a student’s full cognitive, aesthetic, human development, and, yes, their capacity for scientific inquiry.

Here is how Ask for More Arts works:

Ask for More Arts also re-engages teachers. PPSJ provides high quality professional development for teachers, build bridges between the education and art communities, and works with a network of parents who serve as arts education advocates using the same “ground up” model that has marked other successful PPSJ programs.

PPSJ works with 24 elementary schools, 20 artists, and arts organizations.   Artists and classroom teachers work together to plan a series of arts integration lessons where artists and teachers deliver lessons collaboratively to students over several days, culminating in artistic product or performance.

PPSJ coordinates an annual community-wide student exhibition, allowing children to view their work and student work from other schools in a museum-type setting.

There are many options for re-engaging students in school – arts integration just happens to be one of the best. Ask for More Arts is part of the mission of PPS of Jackson – empowering parents to improve schools from the ground up – one school at a time, one parent at a time, and one child at a time.