Fine Arts

The Importance of an Education Rich in Fine Arts

The fine arts – visual arts, dance, music and theater - are an integral component in every person’s daily life. Our personal, social, economic, and cultural environments are filled with the arts. Learning in the arts cultivates the whole child, gradually building multiple literacies while fostering intuition, reasoning, imagination, and creativity. Arts education encourages students to think and perceive in a variety of ways. The arts help students build the bridge between verbal and non-verbal communication, between what is logical and what is emotional. The arts communicate ideas that words cannot express. The arts reach inside each of us and touch our souls in ways that cannot be defined except through that art. The arts teach self-discipline, reinforce self-esteem, and foster the thinking skills and creativity that world leaders define as most valuable in our global future. The arts teach the importance of teamwork and cooperation. They demonstrate the direct connection between study, hard work, discipline and high levels of achievement. Learning the arts at a young age - and continuing for a lifetime - make all students better students, make all people better people. The arts are good for everyone, not just for those who think of themselves as artists.

Fine Arts instruction is available to all Tomball ISD students - grades K through 12. The fine arts are truly unique in the school curriculum of Texas. All fine arts courses taught in Tomball ISD have rigorous standards set down by the Texas Education Agency. Those standards are known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills or TEKS. That means fine arts courses are as curricular as English, Reading, Algebra or History. But, all our fine arts courses also contain an extra-curricular component. Those extra-curricular events range from spring semester dance contests, to art competitions, to UIL Music contests, to One-Act Play Contests and dozens and dozens of others. So, Tomball Fine Arts students incredible skills are  on display at at both "curricular" and "extra-curricular" events. Our students learn the value of performing both for a curricular "grade" and an extra-curricular "contest." Only a handful of other activities in Tomball ISD have both an important curricular component and provide extra-curricular competitive opportunities.