As of February 8, 2010 both the 10:00 am and the 12:15 pm performances of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the accompanying Theater Vision Days, will be presented as scheduled,Tuesday, February 9, 2010. Information will be posted on this web site as soon as any decision about not presenting the show is made. Please continue to check back.
Email: mbukowski@lourdes.edu
Reasons to Support the Arts
- Dan Willingham, a cognitive scientist at the University of Virginia and author of "Why Don't Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What it Means for the Classroom," recently published an article in the November 23, 2009 Washington Post entitled "Willingham: Six Practical Reasons Why Arts Education is Not a Mere Luxury". The "reasons" were presented at the Learning, Arts, and the Brain conference on May 9, 2009 by Jerry Kagen, a leading researcher in developmental psychology.
The six reasons are listed here:
- The arts offer students another chance to feel successful, and to feel that they belong at school.
- The arts offer that sense of agency, of creation.
- The arts offer a unique means of communication, using representations in the mind other than words, which are at the core of most school subjects.
- Participation in the arts allows children to see the importance of creating beauty, of creating an object that others may enjoy.
- The arts offer an opportunity for children to work together, for the benefit of others.
- The arts provide a chance for children to express feelings that they otherwise might be unable to express. Such expression reduces illness and increases feelings of well-being.
The article and a full explanation of the six reasons is available