For the remainder of the 20th century, arts education's role in public schools ebbed and flowed with the country's political leanings and financial well-being.
Broudy viewed imagination as an essential component of learning that should be cultivated in schools, and he advocated for the integration of aesthetic education into all subject matters in his work, Enlightened Cherishing.
The arts helped students with problem solving and decision making and those processing experiences could be adapted in general life situations.
The first points to economic grounds that art teaches "21st-century skills" like collaboration and innovation, which are necessary only as a means to breed productivity for the growth of the market.
[12] Howard Gardner's Theory of multiple intelligences has been used as part of the rationale for the use of integrated arts models in teaching and learning.
The CETA program has added to the research about the impact of arts integration on students, teachers, and school culture through multiple evaluation studies.
A series of Kennedy Center Seminars for Teaching Artists that focus on arts integration, as well as practices for developing strong arts-integrated residencies for students and workshops for teachers are available throughout the nation.
The Kennedy Center Partners in Education, headquartered in Washington, DC, is an organization that has promoted arts integration for over two decades.
[13] Since the 1980s, Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, has been educating classroom teachers across the US in the implementation of arts integration through a professional development master's degree program.
A 2012 research study, funded by the Ford Foundation, has found that teachers who graduate from the program and integrate the arts into their teaching are more resilient and remain committed to their profession.
Through its Center for Partnerships for Arts-Integrated Teaching (PAInT)[1], the College conducts research and service activities that benefits their students and the entire region.
[15][16][17][18] ArtsNow [2] provides professional development training for educators, focused on building the skills needed to integrate arts across the curriculum.
AiS has developed programming for use of arts integration in teaching the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math) and Literacy.
The three major skills in education that are considered the “core” subjects to teach students include math, writing, and reading comprehension.
While a sizable amount of the educational budget is spent on these important areas of academic study, schools are finding that there is less money for what some would consider as non-essential courses, such as higher level music and art.
Still, as with grants, private contributors cannot donate enough funds to adequately support the arts in education and cannot contribute as consistently as the government could.
Due to statistical analysis of a perceived lapse in mathematical and reading skills of our youth, many parents feel that importance of the arts is less crucial than other fundamental areas of academic study.
They serve as a vehicle for acquiring the skills to which educational reformers have said students should aspire: problem-solving, higher order thinking, flexibility, persistence, and cooperation.
Funding and advocacy for the arts still remains the largest issue that is currently facing teaching this important area to students.
In a society where the entire educational system is based on preparing a future work force, focus is put on the STEM field (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and the arts are neglected.
Research shows that children exposed to arts do better in school, develop greater social, cognitive and emotional skills and are more likely to earn higher degrees of education later in life.
Howard Gardner's (1983) theory of multiple intelligences (MI), outlined in his book, Frames of Mind, has contributed to the increasing awareness of the value of the arts in children's learning and in schools today.
Educators such as Thomas Armstrong (1994) and David Lazear (1991), have helped translate Gardner's theory, which is essentially a psychological framework, to the world of classroom teachers.
The theory, with respect to schooling, is that if we expanded the repertoire of teaching practices to include more attention to students' capacities to use their musical, spatial, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and bodily/kinesthetic intelligences, we may reach more children.
The confidence, collaboration, and creativity that arts education fosters has a circular, positive effect on academics as well as cultural engagement.
A meta-analysis by the American Psychological Association furthermore showed how listening to music can result in progressive relaxation and that listening to classical music one hour a day increases greater brain coherence and more time spent in the alpha state (state of aware relaxation stimulating imagination, intuition and higher awareness).
Further studies have also indicated that incorporating Art into academic education for disabled children better supported cognitive development and improved communication skills.
[36][37] Her categories and methods are as follows: It is often difficult to fully integrate the arts with traditional classroom instruction in a way that allows for the arts-cultura model.
The challenge in integrating arts in today's technology-first education lies not in implementing production labs on school campuses or accessing the latest computer software, but rather in effectively managing the sheer amount of information that technology makes available.
[40] Due to current economic recession many schools across see their arts programs cut off in favor of core curriculum subject such as English, math and science.