Facilitating the growth of artictic intelligence Essay

Facilitating the growth of artictic intelligence - Essay Example Here, an attempt is made to show how pre-adolescents can become confident of using innate ability and acquired skills gained through art, especially, to enhance cognitive, moral, social and other characteristics they need to develop for use in work and life. Artistic expression is used throughout a child’s school experience. From kindergarten level, drawing teaches skills such as correct pencil grip, visual calculation of distances, hand-eye coordination and the ability to compare colors and shapes and to understand symbols and ideas (McDonald & Fisher 4). As they progress into middle school, these basic building blocks can be used as a foundation for â€Å"understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures; reflecting upon and assessing the work of others; and making connections between the visual arts and other disciplines (MENC, 1994)† (McDonald & Fisher 5). Teachers can use the visual arts, which are enjoyable and feel less like rigorous learning, especially to reluctant students, to promote readiness to learn subjects across the curriculum. Ideas for projects that include hands-on artistic tasks can be successfully incorporated in math, languages, social studies and science - all subjects that â€Å"require higher-order thinking skills† (Prince 2002, 49). Nurturing artistic skills - even very rudimentary ones - can be beneficial in middle school, as students embark on some very serious learning. They can be promoted and improved, since they embrace aesthetic and perceptual abilities which are comparatively easy to acquire. Used by the teacher to instill confidence that flows from the ability to make pictures or three-dimensional pieces, this can-do feeling will be available to be applied to various learning areas. In languages, cartoons and graphic narratives can promote confidence in expressing ideas fluently by using creativity and imagination (McDonald & Fisher 51). In social studies, maps and 3-D globes or panoramas can