For students who don’t thrive in a standardized education environment, an arts integration education does wonders in making subjects interesting.
Educators come up with creative and imaginative ways to teach subjects through the arts. And vice versa.
Not only does this keep students engaged, but they actually enjoy learning.
But the sort of arts integration education instituted at Arts Academy in the Woods does so much more than teach subjects.
Arts Academy in the Woods Teaches Students to Be Whole
So what does this mean exactly?
Well, there’s something incredibly nurturing about being immersed in an environment that encourages compassion, understanding, freedom of expression and tolerance.
Do the arts encourage these practices as a necessary part of the creative process? Or do these practices come naturally to the creative soul?
It doesn’t really matter.
Because whatever the case, it is an environment that primes a student to learn not only about the subjects at hand but to also learn about him/herself.
In fact, it’s a natural byproduct.
Art Is NOT a Waste of Time
By the time that creative and arts-minded young adults come to Arts Academy in the Woods, many have been bullied, discouraged and made to feel that what they find important is simply folly.
So when they settle into a space where they are accepted and where their thoughts and beliefs matter, it’s incredibly liberating.
Not only are they able to find their voices, but others are actually interested in what they have to say.
Student Eddie Meze states it beautifully in his writing:
I was once told, by my own middle school teacher, “Art is a waste of time in real life. It is not a true, necessary education.” For long after I was told this, I felt as if it were true. I felt that my talents and passions were but a hobby that wouldn’t get any further than nowhere.
Upon arriving to Arts Academy in the Woods, I feared that it would be “just another school” – one with answers rather than questions. Yet, within mere days of attending this school, I found myself utterly mistaken.
The teachers don’t merely ask you a question, they encourage you to think of that question and express curiosity about its answer.
They don’t expect you to say, “Shakespeare was a phenomenal writer” without asking yourself if he truly was. You are asked to think, not obey; to create, not copy. And that has changed the way that I think and act to this day.
When I first attended this school, I was a shy, obedient “people-pleaser”. I did what I was told without question. But thanks to Arts Academy, I have become a person who desires questioning answers, rather than accepting them as so.
I have been open about my identity and who I truly am, thanks to this school teaching me that who I am cannot be answered by anyone but myself. I am myself because of this school.
I am myself because of the Arts.
That pretty much says it all.
Are You Searching for a More Complete Education?
Standardized education works great for some students. But there are just as many who are struggling in a world that dictates conventionality and conformity.
If you feel your child would thrive with an arts integration education, then come and take a tour of Arts Academy in the Woods.
It could make all the difference.