Far Brook School’s entire teaching staff recently attended an all-day program at the Guggenheim Museum in New York as part of their professional development. The focus of the Guggenheim program is the power that learning through the arts exerts across the entire curriculum.

For Far Brook teachers, it was never a question that learning through the arts has positive crossover effects in other subjects. At Far Brook, music is part of every student’s daily life, through singing at the daily Morning Meeting and working with the school’s two full-time music teachers. The School’s Director of Drama, James Glossman, works with students in grades 4 through 8 on presentations of plays whose subject matter is tied to the core curriculum of each class. Some of the plays presented this year thus far and last year were written by Shakespeare, Euripides, a Roman comedy by Terence, and Fragments of the War – A Civil War Album, adapted by Mr. Glossman. All plays are presented using the author’s original language, although the plays may be shortened. Every student in the class participates as a cast member. All students participate in a fine arts program, incorporating drawing, painting, and ceramics.

Philosopher John Dewey understood the power of learning through the arts in the beginning decades of the previous century, and the founding head of Far Brook School, Winifred Moore, understood it in the beginning years of the School. Far Brook teachers experience its value in their daily teaching. Now research backs it up.

A three-year study was conducted with New York City school students who participated in the Guggenheim’s Learning Through Art program. Researchers found that these students performed better in six categories of literacy and critical thinking skills than students who did not participate in the program. These skills – extended focus, thorough description, hypothesizing, using evidence, making logical and specific connections, and developing multiple interpretations of evidence – are invaluable in learning every subject, from science and math to English, and including art itself.

The teachers participated in learning activities, such as the process of asking students open-ended questions, the core of the Guggenheim program. It seems so simple and even somewhat pedestrian, but the inquiry approach has an impact on learning that is deep and broad. This method leads to more characteristics being noticed, to more questions being raised, and as a result, students feel more confident and embark on deeper thinking.