Sobriquet 26.5: Arts Education Boosts Literacy

The New York Times's Randy Kennedy reports that a recent study conducted by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has concluded that "learning about paintings and sculpture help children become better students in other areas." After interviewing hundreds of elementary school students participating in the Guggenheim's Learning Through Art iniciative, researchers report that "students in the program performed better in six categories of literacy and critical thinking skills--including thorough description, hypothesizing and reasoning--than did students who were not in the program."

Such findings suggest that deemphasizing the arts in public schools--a common trend in the No Child Left Behind era--may actually enfeeble the educational progress of America's students.