FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT

SEMESTER JANUARY 2019

OUMH1203

ENGLISH WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

NO. MATRIKULASI : 870307025704001

NO. KAD PENGENALAN : 870307-02-5704

NO. TELEFON : 019-5481437

E-MEL : [email protected]

PUSAT PEMBELAJARAN : ALOR SETAR

Topic: The role of education is to prepare children for the modern world. School should have
art and music in their curricula so that children can be diverse in their talents.

INTRODUCTION

Three conspicuous reasons on why I agree on two talents that can prepare children in
future below.

I) Ability in music & art can prepare themselves to be success in math &
science
a) Involve thinking skill for solve the problem & calculation
i) Children performed higher on thinking skill
ii) Brain Tune Up for children

II) Always active in curricula normally scored better in academic perfomed

a) Letting off steams gathered during their long hour spent learning other
curriculam subject
i) Pattern recognition & mental representation score higher than
regular student
ii) Teenager will focus themselves with art & musical

III) Arts & music also teach the children about freedom to express their thoughts
without fear
a) Increase confident level, integrity & also restraining their mind from self-
destructive thoughts
i) Increase social skill
1. INTRODUCTION

School is a place for student's overall development. They become more successful by
learning various things in school like Academics, sports and extracurricular activities.
Interestingly, inclusion of extracurricular activities like arts and music in student's timetable
has caused a lot of debate. Some people argue that these subjects are not important and they
should focus on other learning materials. However, I strongly agree with the idea of including
arts and music school curricular because besides improving their brain activities, arts and
music also develops positive values within children such as patience, responsibility and
honesty. My opinion is based on several facts including proven studies. I will explain three
conspicuous reasons on why I agree on two talents that can prepare children in future below.

First and foremost, I believe children with ability in music and art can prepare
themselves to be success in mathematical and science. Mathematical involves many
calculation and problem solving that leads children to have specific thinking skill on how to
solve the question. It is simply can be answered by anyone without any knowledge in
mathematical. According to Neurological Research made in 1997, musical students can
understand mathematical and scientific concept more readily. Children who received piano
training especially performed 34% higher on tests measuring proportional reasoning such as
ratio, fractions, proportions, and calculations involving thinking in space and time. Their
training in musical scores involves precise timing to execute musical notes to produce
emotion within their song. An offset could spoil the scores and children will usually try to
adjust their timing and their sound ratio. Unintentionally, they learn and practice
mathematical theory during their training. In addition, students involved in arts such as
painting has a better photographic memory and they often score higher in subjects involving
memorizing facts such as history and science. According to Dr. Arnold Bresky, a physician
who has created a program called the “Brain Tune Up” that utilizes art therapy for
Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, He reports that 70% of his patients experience
improvements in memory when they draw or paint. He believes that these activities increase
connectivity between the right and left hemispheres of the brain and help to grow new brain
cells. Plus, when we examined this group of children in future, they are more independent in
life in order to make any decision making in life. This is because they are more creative and
focus in any situation. Therefore, I believe children with good skills in mathematical and
science will perform better in education and their daily life.

Secondly, children who always active in curricula normally scored better in academic
performance. When students practice in musical arts, they are actually letting off steams
gathered during their long hour spent learning other curriculum subject. Students spend long
hour in a day to study and doing the school work at home which might cause them to have
depression in finishing all the task. According to Dr. Eugenia Costa-Giomi, study presented
at the meeting of the Music Educators National Conference, Phoenix, AZ, 1998 shows that
pattern recognition and mental representation scores in students who were given a 3 year
musical training is significantly higher than regular students. As mentioned in previous
paragraph, their examination result is much higher than regular students due to steadier and
calmer mental state. Moreover, teenager students who busy themselves with art and musical
extracurricular activities are partially immune to social issue. They will not feel the needs to
taking drugs because they find solace in arts and music, they often express their feelings in
arts and music. No matter what challenges thrown at them, they will express guilt, sadness or
joy in their art and music. Thus, eliminating the major cause of depression among teenagers.

The following are findings reported in Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on
Learning  (Fiske, 1999) that should be noted by every parent, teacher, and administrator:

 The arts reach students not normally reached, in ways and methods not normally
used.  (This leads to better student attendance and lower dropout rates.)
 It changes the learning environment to one of discovery.  (This often re-ignites the
love of learning in students tired of just being fed facts.)
 Students connect with each other better.  (This often results in fewer fights, greater
understanding of diversity, and greater peer support.)
 The arts provide challenges to students of all levels.  (Each student can find his/her
own level from basic to gifted.)
 Students learn to become sustained, self-directed learners.  (The student does not just
become an outlet for stored facts from direct instruction, but seeks to extend
instruction to higher levels of proficiency.)
  The study of the fine arts positively impacts the learning of students of lower
socioeconomic status as much or more than those of a higher socioeconomic status. 
(Twenty-one percent of students of low socioeconomic status who had studied music
scored higher in math versus just eleven percent of those who had not. By the senior
year, these figures grew to 33 percent and 16 percent, respectively, suggesting a
cumulative value to music education.)

Encourage role playing. Students are able to better understand a story, character, or event if
they are able to physically act it out. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are part of the
process, but all students can participate. For English learners, I use pictures and retell the
story orally, while they act it out physically. Students can work collaboratively to write their
own stories and act them out for friends. Virginia McEnerney is the Executive Director of the
Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the nonprofit administrator of the Scholastic Art & Writing
Awards which recognizes and provides scholarship opportunities for creative teens:
In order to create change, students must first learn to create. Just like adults and perhaps even
more so because they are still developing their own identities, young people turn to and
respond to the arts to help them communicate and understand ideas, viewpoints and
emotions. In this way, the arts cultivate creative thinking which leads to other supplemental
skills such as problem-solving which ultimately can benefit students across disciplines.
Arts education should play an essential role in affirming and developing creative abilities
among students of all skill levels, without limiting it to those who aspire to be professional
artists or writers. It's just as likely that a biologist who developed creative thinking in middle
or high school arts classes could think of a new way of looking at cancer research as it is that
an artist can develop new forms and media for artistic expression. In fact, I've seen this
among the past winners of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
Our contemporary economy depends and thrives on innovation and new ways of thinking
about and seeing the world. This is exactly what arts education nurtures - young people who,
through creative practice, develop the skill to imagine the world differently. Studies such
as Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America's Future Through Creative
Schools from the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, display the powerful
role that arts education can play in increasing student engagement, closing the achievement
gap, and nurturing the skills that will ultimately change our world.
 Furthermore, arts and music also teach the children about the freedom to express their
thoughts without fear of being judged by others. It will increase their confidence level,
integrity, and also restraining their mind from self-destructive thoughts. Other than that, it
also helps to increase social skill of the students to make them prepare in future either during
their daily life and working life. Nowadays, students spend their time with the media mass
such as social networking to enhance their social skill. However, we do aware on the
disadvantages of advancement of technology to the students at the early age. Sometimes
without parental guidance, something bad might be happen. Most of students from arts and
musical background are less likely to be involved in sexual activities and alcohol abuse.
Studies conducted by Fred Travis, Maharishi University of Management in the US shows that
musician’s brains are highly developed in a way that makes musicians alert, interested in
learning, and disposed to see the whole picture of situation. They develops patience, calm and
playful demeanour.

“Parents need to be aware that children learn a lot more from graphic sources now than in the
past,” says Dr. Kerry Freedman, Head of Art and Design Education at Northern Illinois
University. “Children need to know more about the world than just what they can learn
through text and numbers. Art education teaches students how to interpret, criticize, and use
visual information, and how to make choices based on it.” Knowledge about the visual arts,
such as graphic symbolism, is especially important in helping kids become smart consumers
and navigate a world filled with marketing logos.

Performing arts like dance and theatre show some of the most profound impacts, as students
who learn to perform learn valuable skills that help in classrooms and beyond. Public
speaking, verbal skills, memorization, emotional intelligence, literacy, and so on, are all
developed by reading and rehearsing a play. Students who have the opportunity to perform
often feel a sense of accomplishment, which can motivate them to achieve elsewhere as well.
Additionally, this provides a chance for physical engagement which, especially at an
elementary level, can be hugely beneficial to students’ focus in their classes. In total,
allowing students the opportunity to develop as artists is better for them in many ways.
Teachers can always endeavor to bring arts-based learning into a classroom, or simply allow
for creative time. Parents can encourage artists to grow and explore, enroll students in
extracurricular programs, or participate in arts with their children. Those who learn with the
arts learn on many different levels. They will go far, and achieve higher with the arts behind
them. As a result, schools in areas serving children from low-income families have reduced
or completely cut their arts and music programs. These programs tend to be the first
casualties of budget cuts in hard-pressed school districts already struggling to meet other
demands of the academic curriculum, and they are rarely restored. Some school districts
don’t have much meat left to cut from arts programs that had already been reduced to bare
bones after repeated funding shortfalls over many years.

CONCLUSION

In Conclusion, undoubtedly, arts and music proves to be more than painting and
playing musical instrument. They develop student’s identity and improvise their mental
development. To deny their access to learning arts and music is like denying our children’s
access to education itself because we are barricading them from becoming what they wanted
to be. Once again, I strongly support the idea of including arts and music in school curricular.