Quotation, Paraphrase, and Citation #1

Quotation: More than 10 million American high school students responded to a questionnaire indicating the number of years of arts classes they took. The results were amazingly consistent. Students who took arts classes had higher mathematics, verbal and composite SAT scores than students who did not take arts classes.

Paraphrase: Millions of students attending high schools across America answered the question stating how many fine arts classes were attended in their educational careers. The turn out was surprisingly steady. People who chose not to attend fine arts courses received lesser SAT scores in the math, oral, and compound areas than those who opted to attend these fine arts courses.

Summary of Article: The article written in School Administrator was focusing on the benefits and extreme importance of fine arts in schools. The education system failed to realize that music is a key role in numeracy and mathematics. Art is a fundamental part to cognitive and leadership skills. David Sousa brought statistics that consistantly prove that students whom attended fine arts in their educational upbringing perform substantially better than those who did not. The author continuously claims that the arts develop young minds and indulge children into their own imaginations. Sousa refers to a study in Florida reports that 41% of all dropouts chose to stay because they were more engaged in their art classes than academic courses. This is an immense statistic of students who chose to stay not because their parents told them or they were pressured, but because they enjoyed the day even if only for one period. The author steadily states that different learning styles are integrated in fine arts and have in fact improved overall attendace, grades, and standardized test scores in Minneapolis, Chicago, and Iowa. These strong associations between our fine arts and core curriculum subjects are the essential steps to successful integration of an enjoyable topic that not only pleases us, but subconsciously is creating more and more connections over our two cranial hemispheres.

Sousa, David A. "How the Arts DEVELOP THE YOUNG BRAIN." School Administrator 63.11 (2006): 26-31. Professional Development Collection. EBSCO. Web. 9 Nov. 2010.