Everyone knows that a high-quality elementary education is essential to childhood development. Learning the basics and the essentials while also nurturing a child’s social and emotional growth is key to that child growing into a successful adult. But what place should the performing arts, often included as exclusively an extracurricular, have in a child’s early education? Read on to learn just some of the benefits of performing arts middle schoolers and elementary schoolers experience by having access to this important developmental tool.
Fostering Social And Emotional Development
Performing arts are an incredibly important developmental tool for elementary and middle school children. Theater and drama, especially, can help teach empathy and compassion, as children are put in positions where they have to consider the feelings and thoughts of others. While this can also be fostered within a traditional classroom structure, it often isn’t encouraged to the same degree that it is within theater programs.
Additionally, music as a performing art can help benefit elementary school-age children as well. Music performance uses a wide variety of cognitive and social skills, from memorizing and recognizing patterns to working cooperatively with peers. This unique performance art can emphasize important skills not otherwise found in classrooms, and yet it is often relegated to being an extracurricular, rather than part of a standard elementary curriculum.
Cutting Arts Programs?
Despite performing arts being such a useful tool in childhood development and education, many public schools have been cutting funding for arts programs in recent years. Various arts, including performing arts, are being left as exclusively extracurriculars or are being removed from public schools entirely. Many of the 33,619 private schools in the United States, on the other hand, are actively including a stable arts education into the regular curriculum, ensuring students are able to reap the benefits of this powerful developmental tool.
If you’re looking for one of the top private schools in Miami to send your child to so you can be sure they get a suitable arts education, contact Conchita Espinosa Academy. CEA is deeply committed to including the arts as an important part of your child’s education, making it consistently one of the top private schools in Miami and the surrounding area.
