Kellam, Susan. (1999) "The Arts are Basic to Achievement: An Interview with Shirley Brice Heath

." Connect for Kids.

OVERVIEW

(Download Arts Basic to Achievement overview as a PDF)

While it may seem obvious that the arts help kids think outside the box, what may not be obvious is that being engaged in the arts can help poise children for greater academic excellence and achievement. Now we have the research to back it up. English and liguistics professor Shirley Brice Heath from Stanford University began studying two working class communities in the Carolina's, one African-American and one Caucasian, some 30 years ago.  What she found was that the African-American children engaged in many more tasks with adults than their counterparts resulting in the development of "hypothetical language" - "what happens if I do this?" Following up with these children's children, she noted the gradual disappearance of this sort of language. She explains that before, kids were much more likely to engage in planning family activities or building things like a sandbox, but now, parents tend to have these things done by others. In other words, children are being robbed of experiential learning activities within the family. Consequently, these children are "not dealing in open questions and they're not engaging in the kind of planful language where they're talking about the possibility of what will happen with certain steps along the way...they're not using mental-state verbs, such as wonder, speculate, or ponder."

Heath continued her studies in the late 80's by observing what kids were doing on their own in the non-school hours. She studied 120 community-based organizations across the country that were either athletic-academic, community service or arts-based. Her findings revealed that: "the kids in the arts-based organizations exhibited an intensity of certain characteristics, including motivation, persistance, critical analysis, and planning." In comparison to a sample from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey, she discovered that youth in arts programs are: "25 percent more likely to report feeling satisfied with themselves; twice as likely to win an award for academic achievement; and 23 percent more likely to feel they can make plans and successfully work from them." Why is this? "Primarily, the arts hold the opportunity for kids to play around with ideas in their head and carry it out with degrees of success and failure, or something in between. The second thing that's really important in the creative process is that kids can talk out loud about what's going on in the piece, in their work."

Heath would like more research done on what happens to these kids vocationally after they leave these community organizations. Moreover, she wants more programs targeting girls specifically, in addition to more professional training of the staff and more evaluation of these programs to help establish best practices.

Heath's research has found success:  Attorney General Janet Reno inluded aspects of her data in various crime bills. And, in general, the arts seem to be gaining wider recognition for their power to address various personal and social ills (see the Coming up Taller report

). What's needed now are more researchers like Heath who are inspired to continue the research.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION & DISCUSSION

1. Did the findings of Heath's research surprise you? Why or why not?
2. What has been your experience with the arts? How have they shaped you positively or negatively?
3. What are some ways you might incorporate the arts into a community program for at-risk youth?

IMPLICATIONS

1. The arts should not be neglected in our funding and planning of youth programs as they clearly hold keys to child success.

Christen B. Yates cCYS