Dr.Joseph A. Olzacki Opines on the Importance of Music and Visual Arts in a Public-School Curriculum

Dr.Joseph A. Olzacki is best known for his advocacy in promoting genocide and holocaust education; however, he also has a Masters of Music in Education

EAST HAMPTON, CONNECTICUT, UNITED STATES, April 18, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — Dr. Joseph A. Olzacki is best known for his advocacy in promoting genocide and holocaust education; however, he also has a Masters of Music in Education and has previously served on the Board of Directors with Hartford Symphony Orchestra. He offers insight into why it’s so important for children and teenagers to study music and visual arts in school even if they aren’t particularly gifted in these areas and/or have no intention of pursuing a career in these fields in the future.

Critical Thinking and Communication Skills

As Dr. Joseph A. Olzacki rightly points out, a performance-based music and visual arts curriculum not only teaches a child how to perform but also boosts critical thinking skills. Students in such a course have to not only evaluate their own work but also that of their peers. They have to use visual information along with logical and abstract thinking to assess creations and then determine how to best explain their point of view to a third party.

Furthermore, students come away from the program with effective communication skills. These will serve them well in any career. As a recent survey found, four of the top five skills employers look for when hiring employees for mid-level positions are directly related to one’s ability to communicate well with others. Oral and written communication skills top the list, but listening and presentation skills are also highly sought after.

Boosting Grades and Improving Overall Academic Achievement

Statistics clearly show that students who take arts and music classes are more likely to receive recognition for academic achievement, participate in math and/or science fairs, win awards for school attendance, and get elected to class office than students who don’t study art and music.

Studying arts and music inspires children to excel not just in these fields but in others as well. Young children, for instance, can learn basic shapes with ease by learning how to draw them. Older children taking advanced art courses will learn about dimensions and proportions, both important math concepts. Furthermore, researchers have found that music stimulates the area of the brain associated with reading and language development.

What Does a Good Music and Visual Arts Curriculum Look Like?

Dr. Joseph A. Olzacki points out that the Performance-based Curriculum Guide for Music and the Visual Arts (PBCG) offers national standards for performing arts students. The guide covers the needs of students from Kindergarten to High School and includes concepts, content, assessment standards, and more. Even so, a winning curriculum alone isn’t enough. As Dr. Olzacki rightly notes, curriculum teachers need to have a passion for music and the arts in order to inspire enthusiasm in their students.

There is a very real connection between learning music and the arts and developing the skills needed to become useful, tolerant, compassionate members of society. The study of music and the arts enables students to learn how to communicate with others, think clearly, and create cultural and personal connections with people of different ages and walks of life. Dr. Joseph Olzacki, who has dedicated his life to helping students understand the horrors of past genocides in order to prevent future ones, is right to promote the study of music and art as a way of helping students learn the emotional skills they will need in adulthood.

Caroline Hunter
Web Presence, LLC
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