What is Smart ART ?

Many educators have discovered Arts as a tool but hesitate to use it. Asking themselves, “Can the Arts be academic?”. A California research project shows the remarkable power of the Arts in motivating students to complete high school and college with honors.

‘Students with access to arts education are

● five times less likely to drop out of school,

● four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement

● four times more likely to receive a bachelor's degree’

Julie Baker, executive director of California Arts Advocates. Oct. 10, 2022 : Too many California schools fail to provide mandated arts education; lets fix that. J.Flores, EdSource.org

Isn’t that the goal of every teacher, parent and administrator? … For students TO GRADUATE with honors !

Smart Art introduces using Art Forms as a vital academic tool in daily assignments. It is based on the undeniable fact:

Creating Art uses the highest level of thinking.

I began evaluating aspects of curriculum when thinking levels stood out. Bloom's Taxonomy made sense. He and his team at the University of Chicago solidified each thinking levels then clearly mapped the steps with 40 years of research.

The Ninety-third Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education /1994 : Blooms Taxonomy A Forty-year Retrospective

That was the connection I was seeking.

Bloom’s Taxonomy is proof that when students create an Artistic expression they are using their maximum brain power. Why? Because Art is a tool that allows our imaginations the freedom to create. Einstein knew this before even brilliant Bloom.

Einstein said: “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

“What Life Means to Einstein”, by George Sylvester Viereck , p.117 ,Oct. 27th, 1929

How can Arts be used in daily academic assignments?

My dive into this question came after 10 years of integrating arts while teaching middle school… Then, I had an opportunity to instruct future teachers at a local university.

Professors, I discovered, have more flexibility to experiment with curriculum. I immediately gave students the choice to use their imaginations to create Artistic expression when responding to weekly homework assignments. For example, they could complete the boring questions at the end of the chapter OR summarize the assignment by :

● Creating a video

● Writing a song lyrics or poem

● Creating and performing a skit

● Drawing or painting a picture

● Or any Art form they thought of!

I was genuinely shocked by their enthusiastic response. Each bi-weekly homework assignment usually took approximately 1-2 hours. But these students were VOLUNTARILY spending 3-5 hours on a video, a song, poem, a powerful drawing, a skit or even a sculpture !

“WHY?” I thought …”What is happening here?”

It was a combination of students finally getting to use their bright minds to THINK at the max instead of just the lowest levels… memorizing and understanding. Smart Art was born.

Smart Art

is a

artistic expression

of an

academic lesson

created

In a student’s imagination.

Creativity is indisputably the highest level of thinking. Imagination is the garden where creativity grows. Smart Art is an academic tool that allows creativity the maximum flexibility in human expression. Each level of thinking is used to get to the top!

Smart Art does not change curriculum! …Instead it allows students the option to express academic subjects using their individual strengths.

Rekindling students' ‘thinking’ rigor, their joy-for-learning while encouraging the discovery of their personal artistic talent are my primary motivation for

writing about this academic tool. Yet, it is the students’ enthusiasm that continues to inspire me. Here are the four qualities I observed using Smart Art for over a decade with students:

● Understanding and Using the Highest Thinking Skills

● Rekindled Enthusiasm for Learning

● Discovery and Development of their Personal Strengths ● Class Communities learned: accepting Differences is an Important part of building Any Group

Watch students' minds and hearts come alive! Maximizing their thinking skills and rekindling their joy is my continuous motivation to share Smart Art. Join me in introducing them to this powerful academic method. Connect to the training opportunities and tools here on the Web Site. Contact me, Dr. Worley, with the smallest or biggest question at: Smartart3n1@gmail.com. Thank you for caring about students.

students,too!  This enthusiasm makes it easier to put into practice.   There are hurdles but I hope my free Web Site will encourage you when you have questions or problems.  Teachers and parents want to encourage students to their highest potential.  These  simple guidelines work.  Administrators, Teachers and Parents  agree that students learn differently… then why are they expecting them to respond to material in exactly the same way?  Smart Art utilizes music, drawing, drama, improvisation, videography, dance, photography, simple sculpture and many other art forms into the academic world.   One genius touched on this idea  years ago... one of the greatest minds of the 20th century Albert Einstein took creativity a step further… he put creativity above academic facts when he said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge." Smart Art builds imagination.