Imagine a world where every child has the opportunity to learn, grow, and reach their full potential in a safe environment, regardless of their place of residence, family background, or other external factors. Learning skills are protective factors against societal changes and challenges, guiding us toward a more sustainable world. However, the right to education is not just a promise of a better future – it is a fundamental right that belongs to every child. The Children’s Rights Week gives us the opportunity to reflect on what this promise entails and how we can ensure this right for every child.
Art broadens and creates new dimensions for learning
Art, alongside other fields of knowledge, is a way of knowing that shapes a child’s relationship with reality. Its experiential nature and the multi-sensory information it provides are essential. Although listening to Mozart doesn’t necessarily make us smarter, as was once believed, art plays a key role in learning in other ways. Engaging with and creating art involves combining different forms of sensory information, memory functions, emotions, attention, and motor skills.
Emphasizing the role of arts education as a supporting factor for learning is especially important in a time marked by increased uncertainty, anxiety, and insecurity. Children’s arts and culture offer a space for children to retreat from the pressures of everyday life and to experience joy and success. Arts and culture events and activities don’t only entertain but also bring families and communities together by creating shared experiences of belonging. When children participate in cultural activities, their creativity and imagination are ignited. They learn to think creatively, solve problems, and see the world through new perspectives. These experiences are invaluable for their growth and development, especially when the world around them feels uncertain.
Enabling diverse and equal learning experiences
Cultural education plans create a structured and systematic way to integrate art and culture into the school year. Through these plans, students can explore local culture, visit art institutions, and experience different forms of art. The plans, developed and implemented collaboratively by schools, art practitioners, and other stakeholders, enrich learning experiences and support the diverse development of children. The arts content in schools provides moments of success and strengthens emotional and social skills, creativity, and self-esteem. These programs promote nationwide equality in cultural education, and currently, about 80% of Finnish municipalities have a plan in place.
One cultural education program that reaches an entire age group is Taidetestaajat (Art Testers), which offers all eighth graders in Finland and their teachers 1–2 visits per school year to experience art. The core aim of the program is to provide young people with the tools to form their own reasoned opinions. School trips to art experiences also offer opportunities to learn travel skills, develop critical thinking, and discover new perspectives, while supporting the goals of broad-based learning. Taidetestaajat provides experiences that students might not otherwise have access to, helping to bridge the gap in access to arts education caused by differences in family backgrounds.
In addition to learning that takes place in school, other organizations providing arts education, particularly children’s cultural centres and providers of arts activities, play a key role in offering a high-quality and safe learning environment. Participation in art doesn’t always need to be goal-oriented or formally organized. What matters most is the child’s right and opportunity to engage in arts and culture in a way that suits them – whether that involves listening to music, skateboarding, or going to the cinema.
Building a future where every child can shine
The significance of art and culture in supporting children’s learning is undeniable. We encourage parents, teachers, policymakers, and everyone involved in a child’s life to support and promote children’s participation in art and culture so that every child has equal opportunities to learn. Let’s build a future together where every child has the chance to shine and thrive, no matter the challenges and changes in the world.
Written by: Eeva Laitinen, Coordinator of the Cultural Education Plan -Project
Image by: Valtti Koivunen
This blog was first published (in Finnish) on the lapsenoikeudet.fi website.
This article is one of three blogs in the Children’s Rights Week children’s culture series.
