Hello everyone!
My name is Amanda Conticchio and I am an artist and educator. I am a new educator working in the field for less than 5 years. This year is my first year in my own classroom and I love it because I can be very hands-on. I also am a huge foodie! I love to try new food and just snack. My all-time favorites are tacos and barbecue chips. I am in my last semester at CCNY and currently writing my thesis.
The topic I am interested in is how nonart teachers and caretakers describe the role of art education and do they think that there are any benefits in art-making for children in elementary and middle school students. The reason I am pursuing this question is that I want to see if teachers integrate art into their curriculum and if caretakers integrate art at home. Many parents may not understand what art can do for their child and may even be against getting a career in the field of visual art because of their lack of experience. In my opinion, many teachers don’t know about what art education entails and may not think it is important. To gather this data, I will give surveys out to teachers in my school, as well as some neighbors. I also hope to collect information through social media since we have so many people who use that as a platform for information.
In the end, I hope my paper and data can get parents to be more aware of art education and how helpful it can be to their children. If parents do not practice art at home, I hope after this they will. I want non-art teachers to start including it in their curriculums if they do not do so. I hope to get schools to have more inclusion in the arts whether that be after-school programs, art clubs that have gallery shows for the student’s work, or more interdisciplinary studies combining two subjects. Once they see that art education does have great benefits for children academically and developmentally, visual arts will take over the world!
Take a look at a few articles where you can learn a little about the benefits of art education and about a study involving a few parents:
https://www.jagranjosh.com/articles/improtance-of-visual-art-education-at-schools-1504507904-1
Thank you for your time!
