Opinion Blog

Ask a Psychologist

Helping Students Thrive Now

Angela Duckworth and other behavioral-science experts offer advice to teachers based on scientific research. Read more from this blog.

Student Well-Being Opinion

Art Can Be Transformational, Even If You’re Not ‘Artistic’

The benefits to the brain are significant
By Susan Magsamen — June 07, 2023 1 min read
Why should students who aren't artistic still make art?
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Why should students who aren’t artistic still make art?

Creating art has so many benefits, even for those who may not see themselves as having a particular talent. Here’s something I wrote about the topic for Character Lab as a Tip of the Week:

I had just finished a collage—images of flowers and sunrises and words cut out of magazines, glued in layers along with beads and glitter—to express how I felt that day. Then I showed it to someone close to me.

“That looks like something a 5-year-old created.”

Those words crushed and shamed me. I was 15 years old, and they made me feel like making art was a waste of time and worse, that sharing my feelings was dangerous.

Too often, the world reserves the arts for the gifted. By the time kids reach their early teens, they aren’t encouraged to draw, sing, or dance unless they have displayed a special talent and could become an accomplished musician or artist. Mood boards and collaging? Better to direct that time and energy to something more useful like homework, parents might think.

But creating art has a significant impact on the brain. Research finds that the process of making art activates the prefrontal cortex, helping build executive-functioning skills such as planning and organizing. And there are other rewards to creative expression—for example, humming activates the vagus nerve, engaging the parasympathetic systems to make you feel good. Plus, you don’t have to be good at art to reap the benefits.

To this day, I create collages to work through and express my feelings, and I garden, write bad poetry, and sing in the shower when struggling with a particularly knotty problem at work. When someone judges what I’ve created, I shrug it off. I now know that no one can tell me how to feel about my art.

Don’t believe you have to be artistic to make art.

Do make time for the arts every day. Hum, doodle, color, dance, garden, knit, and cook. Create enriched environments at home, work, and school to encourage playful exploration and heighten awareness of the sensory world around you. Creativity and the arts are not just nice to have; they are a necessity. Art creates culture. Culture creates community. And community creates humanity.

Related Tags:
Arts Education Opinion

The opinions expressed in Ask a Psychologist: Helping Students Thrive Now are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
Reflections on Evidence-Based Grading Practices: What We Learned for Next Year
Get real insights on evidence-based grading from K-12 leaders.
Content provided by Otus
Artificial Intelligence K-12 Essentials Forum How AI Use Is Expanding in K-12 Schools
Join this free virtual event to explore how AI technology is—and is not—improving K-12 teaching and learning.
Federal Webinar Navigating the Rapid Pace of Education Policy Change: Your Questions, Answered
Join this free webinar to gain an understanding of key education policy developments affecting K-12 schools.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Student Well-Being Opinion Netflix's ‘Adolescence' Asks How Cruelty Can Go Unnoticed in Schools
Peer bullying can be more complicated than many adults realize, write three psychologists.
Marc Brackett, Robin Stern & Diana Divecha
5 min read
Paper cutout children, one of which is being ostracized
E+/Getty
Student Well-Being How Medicaid Spending Cuts Could Harm Schools
Districts use Medicaid to cover costs of special education, student services. Cuts to the program would hurt, superintendents said.
4 min read
Vivien Henshall, a long-term substitute special education teacher, works with Scarlett Rasmussen separately as other classmates listen to instructions from their teacher at Parkside Elementary School on May 17, 2023, in Grants Pass, Ore.
Vivien Henshall, a long-term substitute special education teacher, works with Scarlett Rasmussen as other classmates listen to instructions from their teacher at Parkside Elementary School on May 17, 2023, in Grants Pass, Ore. Proposals to change Medicaid spending could impact the classroom, where special education services are often covered by the federal health insurance program.
Lindsey Wasson/AP
Student Well-Being How a School Nurse Convinced Parents to Vaccinate Their Kids Against Measles
“We know that parents trust not only nurses, but especially school nurses," said Kate King, a school nurse in Columbus, Ohio.
6 min read
Vials of the MMR measles mums and rubella virus vaccine are displayed Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, in Lubbock, Texas.
Vials of the MMR measles mums and rubella virus vaccine are displayed Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, in Lubbock, Texas. As the West Texas measles outbreak grew, a school nurse in Columbus, Ohio, persuaded parents of unvaccinated children at her school to get immunized.
Julio Cortez/AP
Student Well-Being Quiz Quiz Yourself: How Much Do You Know About Student Mental Health & Well-Being?
Answer 7 questions about the state of student mental health & well-being.