Art is a universal language.  It has always been the means by which humanity has expressed its deepest feelings, values, and highest ideals.  It is the language of the spirit.  The wonders of creation inspire a response in kind.  Not only can students of art be encouraged to express their inner world of being - imagination, memory, reverie, and speculation - but through a developed sensitivity to the environment, with its colors, textures, light, sounds, and multi-faceted parts, they can be challenged to integrate  and refine their outer world in creative ways.

      Art  education heightens perceptual awareness, stimulates visual thinking, provides experiences in applying the basic concepts of design in art making, and encourages experimentation, while structuring a sequential learning program to establish skills.  It prepares students to interpret and make qualitative judgments about art based on aesthetic values.

     Through art students are stimulated to grow through self-expression, communicating the unique persons they are.  By their plans, problem-solving, choices, risks, and work with others, they can achieve a self-identification and self-understanding.

      By cultivating an understanding and appreciation for works of artists of the past, as well as contemporary ones, art education develops attitudes of respect for diverse cultures and creative expressions.

      Art, then, is a significant factor in the educative process, for it nurtures "the most important needs of a balanced individual and society."1  This process is an ongoing and lifelong development.  In promoting the fulfillment of the whole person, a major goal in education, art also contributes to the growth of a strong community life.  It is, therefore, essential that art be an integral part of elementary education, for it is in a good foundation that a firm structure is built.
 

1  A Guide to Curriculum Planning in ART EDUCATION
   Wisconsin Guide to Public Instruction, 1985

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