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Austin Neese Megan Keaton ENG 112-15 2 May 2013 Annotated Bibliography Baker, Beth. "Arts Education." CQ Researcher 16 Mar. 2012: 253-76. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. In this article, Beth Baker discusses the importance of arts education in schools, and how promoting creativity is healthy for a students academic and social intelligence. She often talks about the decline of arts education around the world and how this decline could negatively affect students. Beth mainly focuses on the consequences of cutting back on arts education and she expresses her opinion on the opposing viewpoints. She talks about how schools are cutting back on their budgets and because of this; the arts are taking the fall. Mrs. Baker also brings up the fact there are some schools that are focusing more on art and music, and she explains the benefits that these schools have viewed in their students. Beth Baker strongly explains the importance for schools to teach arts education to their students. She explains how creativity does not only involve the ability to make art, but it also helps improve critical thinking, problem solving skills, and what society today is calling 21st century skills. Her article gives an in-depth explanation consisting of facts and examples of real life schools that teach their students to be creative. She gives a list of two schools that both did studies. This gives her article credibility and it makes you want to believe her. She could have put more of the numbers from the studies, but I still think her article was useful. Beth also mentions the idea that arts education promotes better test scores and helps children to become well rounded.

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Beth Bakers article helped me gather information and facts about creativity in schools and how it affects students. This article will help me explain how and why arts education is a vital resource in helping students become better prepared for the world today. Her text gives me more information in order to form an opinion and argue for or against one side. Some researchers suggest high-quality arts education helps improve test scores and reduce tardiness and truancy (253). A growing body of research suggests that the arts offer students a unique, valuable way to grow intellectually, socially and emotionally (253). In a 1993 experiment, college students performed better on a test for spatial reasoning after listening for 10 minutes to a Mozart sonata (253). Taylor, Melissa. "Do Schools Kill Creativity? If So, What Can We Do About It?" Parenting.com. Class Notes, 12 July 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. Melissa Taylor quotes Ken Robinson saying that schools kill creativity. Melissa also talks about how creativity is not just drawing, but it is the ability to create something original and useful. She talks about how schools would be if there was a total decrease in arts education, and she explains the effect that the slight decline already has on students. Her article also talks about what schools would need in order to successfully harbor creativity. Melissas article gives a list of things that schools would need to do in order to properly and correctly promote creativity. This list makes you think about the different topics she brings up and how they make sense. Melissa quotes Bill Gates saying, Innovation has been and will continue to be the key to improving the world. By talking about Bill Gates, Melissa gives herself credibility and makes people believe what she is saying about arts education. She talks

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about how schools need to allow children to solve problems their own way and to not limit them in school. I plan to use this article mainly for the list that Melissa gives in order for schools to successfully promote creativity. I also want to use her idea of what schools would be like if arts education were to disappear completely. The image that she gives of schools today is very vivid and it puts a picture into your head when reading it; that is what I want to do to my readers. I want to put a picture in their heads. Melissa says that we want creativity in education Because the alternative is not good -an education system who produces poor problem solvers who lack the ability to create anything of substance (Melissa). Notice that creativity's definition (creating something original and useful) is not limited to the arts; it includes all disciplines (Melissa). By the way, as you can see from the above four elements, you can't teach "creativity" as a special class like music or PE (Melissa). Sawyer, Dr. R. Keith. "Schools That Foster Creativity." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 08 Dec. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. In Dr. R Keith Sawyers article, he talks about the importance of developing schools that are creative in order to prepare children for the world today. Dr. Sawyer often quotes Ken Robinson saying creativity in education is as important as literacy. In his article he tends to explain the definition of creativity in different ways. He put it in a perspective that gives him credibility. Mr. Sawyer also talks about our schools systems today, and what he believes needs to change in order to promote better arts education.

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His article has a lot of convincing information, and quotations from Sir Ken Robinson. Dr. Sawyer also tends to give facts about research that has been done on studies in schools. His article uses many different methods in order to persuade the reader into believing that creativity in schools is an important topic in society today, and that students will benefit greatly from an increase in creative education and motivation. He did this article very well, I especially like the use of facts that he used. He gave himself credibility by talking about Ken Robinson like everyone else. This particular article helped me form an even better viewpoint on creativity in schools. The fact that he uses information from Ken Robinson gives his text better credibility. I want to use this article in order to help convince todays society that students will benefit greatly from arts education and creative thinking. Graduates today need to maximize their own creative potential, because jobs that don't require creativity are being outsourced or automated (Sawyer 1). Dr. Sawyer strongly urges that The world needs everyone's creativity, collectively, to solve pressing social problems (Sawyer 1). The path to the creative society of the future goes straight through the classroom. But not the memorize-and-regurgitate classrooms we have today -- instead, classrooms that give students a deeper understanding of the material (Sawyer 1). Isbell, Rebecca T., and Shirley C. Raines. Creativity and the Arts with Young Children. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/Delmar Learning, 2003. Print. In the book, Creativity and the Arts with Young Children, the authors Rebecca T. Isbell and Shirley C. Raines talk about the importance that creativity in schools has on young kids. They explain all of the benefits that creativity often has on children. The authors also tend to talk

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about educating children as a whole, not just feeding them information and hoping they will retain it. They often talk about the different kinds of creativity that come along with teaching children the arts. Mrs. Isbell, and Mrs. Raines explain how the world today is not the same as it once was. When reading this is makes the reader really stop and think. They talk about educators, philosophers, and scientists beliefs on education. They say that children today should know facts and be able to memorize information. The authors disagree. Their book talks about how children in the world today need to be problem solvers, and they need to be able to adapt to new situations and discover things that have not yet been discovered. Rebecca Isbell, and Shirley Raines quote E. Paul Torrance saying that we are most creative at four years of age (3). The reason they believe this to be true is because when children are that age, they often throw around their ideas, and they do not think of them as right or wrong. I want to use this article to support the idea that creativity is important to children, and that schools today are squandering the creativity of young minds. I agree with all of the information that the authors give, and I think they backed up their ideas very well. I also plan to use this article to give a clear understanding of the definition of the word creativity, and to show readers how students will benefit from arts education. Rather, children must be able to solve problems, be flexible in their thinking, and be willing to venture into new areas of study that have yet to be discovered (2). In the massive amount of literature on creativity, young children frequently are mentioned as examples of creative thinkers because they play with their ideas and exhibit characteristics often found in creative individuals (3).

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Ben Franklins work with electricity, Galileos study of astronomy, Picassos use of cubes, and Frank Lloyd Wrights architecture designs are examples of the work of creative geniuses (5).

Aragon, Debbie. "Mentoring Tomorrow's STEM Professionals More Important than Ever." U.S. Air Force. N.p., 13 Feb. 2013. Web. In Debbie Aragons article titled Mentoring tomorrow's STEM professionals more important than ever, she often talks about the importance of the STEM program on the future of today. She also talks about the reasons why our society needs to better fund this specific program. Debbie also discusses how America does not even come close to being number one in math and science. Her article explains the impact that improving this program will have on our society. Mrs. Aragon talks about how up-coming jobs are going to require people to have skills in science, technology, engineering, and math. Her article gives good information about society today. People know that jobs are requiring more and more STEM knowledge, so this makes her article credible. She talks about how focusing on the STEM program will open up new opportunities and create new advances in technology. She feels that this program will help improve critical thinking skills in students. I want to use this article in order to stress the importance of the STEM program. I also want to use the information in the text to explain the reasons why the arts have been being cut instead of math and science. Society sees STEM much more important than the arts mainly because not as many jobs require arts degrees.

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This concerns the Air Force, and U.S. government as a whole, so much that various organizations have been set up to help increase the nation's education level in STEM (Aragon).

According to the Air Force STEM office website, every job of the future will require a basic understanding of math and science (Aragon).

It also notes that innovations transform nations, creating new industries and occupations, and that advances in technology will have a meaningful impact on the lives of every American (Aragon).