Nowadays, parents and teachers focus a lot on academic achievement. As a result, many kids have no common sense. For example, many teenagers do not know how to cook and tie their shoelaces. These seemingly insignificant tasks are critical in developing common sense and problem-solving skills in students. The latter is built on top of the former. Real-life problems cannot be solved without common sense.
Contrary to a popular assumption, I strongly believe that arts education is extremely important, and it is tremendously beneficial in developing problem-solving abilities in students. It is because there is no one-size-fits-all solution in artmaking. Students must generate ideas on their own and figure out their ways of presenting them. Arts education encourages students to be self-motivated. It is because artmaking is very personal, and only the artist knows what she needs for her work. They must interact with the world around them, converse with different people, seek out tools or resources that will allow them to produce their own works.
