INTEGRATING
THE Arts
INTO YOUR
CHILD’S EDUCATION
y our friend puts you in charge of
party decorations because she
claims she’s “not artistic.” When
we categorize ourselves as creative
or not creative — left-brained or right-
brained — we simplify the processes in
the brain that are really quite complex
and often not isolated to one area
of the brain.

Despite what we high school algebra-
phobes would like to believe, many
opportunities exist where art can
seamlessly work its way into math
curricula, for example. Plus, research
proves the benefit of arts integration
through a child’s ability to retain new
information for longer periods.

26 Washington FAMILY MARCH 2022
BY JACQUELINE RENFROW
A PASSION FOR ARTS
INTEGRATION Integrating arts into education is a career-
long passion for Mariale Hardiman,
professor, co-founder and director of
the Johns Hopkins Neuro-Education
Initiative (NEI), designed to bring
educators knowledge from the science of
learning to inform teaching and learning.

Part of this initiative included the creation
of the Mind, Brain and Teaching (MBT)
certificate and doctoral specialization at
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School
of Education.

Before joining JHU in 2006, Hardiman
worked in the Baltimore City Public
Schools for more than 30 years, serving



in various leadership and administration-
related roles. As the principal of Roland Park
Elementary and Middle School, she led the
school to its designation as a Blue Ribbon School
of Excellence and recognition for innovative
arts programming.

“During the time of high-stakes testing, our
school focus was to meet and exceed state
targets for proficiency in reading and math,”
Hardiman says. “Our faculty became laser-
focused on achieving those goals. But I felt that
something was missing. The joy of learning
seemed to dissipate the more we focused
on raising and maintaining standardized
test scores. Adding arts programming and
integrating the arts into our content instruction
seemed to be the antidote to the kind of
regimented teaching that we were required to
be engaged in by the school district.”
Hardiman reports that once art integration
began, administrators could see students
learning via visual and performing arts. Plus,
teachers reported that students appeared to
learn and retain information better when the
arts were infused into instruction.

Similarly, Alexandra Murtaugh, now a
research and development coordinator for the
education nonprofit NeuroLogic by Lakeside,
spent nine years as a high school biology
teacher in the Philadelphia area.

“My interest in arts education actually came
because I saw students interact with the material
differently when it was project-based. I had the
opportunity to collaborate with someone from
our local mural arts program, who helped design
relevant science and art projects that propelled
my students’ learning,” Murtaugh says.

Murtaugh has found arts integration
particularly helpful for students with
backgrounds of trauma because it gives them an
opportunity to create an emotional release—it
allows for a voice in the classroom, along with
being naturally meditative.

THE EDUCATOR’S CHALLENGE
Hardiman believes that students who have
the most to gain from an arts-integrated
education are often the least likely to have
access to them, such as students who attend
under-resourced schools, those with learning
differences and bilingual English language
learners. She cautions that arts integration
does not replace general arts education.

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