Anecdotal Evidence

Here are anecdotal quotes you can borrow in your fight to justify, validate, or even expand arts funding in your schools (please always have the citation handy in case anyone asks, and when using a printed medium, please always include it):

“Skills associated with music – pattern-forming and pattern recognition, kinesthetic ability, imaging, aesthetic sensibility, analogizing and analysis – and indeed an understanding of music itself – have often been important components of the correlative talents of many famous scientists.” (51)

Root-Bernstein, Robert S. “Music, Creativity and Scientific Thinking” Leonardo Vol. 34, No. 1 (2001): 63-68. Web. 21 Nov. 2015

"Reported benefits of the arts include the development of the imagination (Greene, 1995), greater motivation to learn (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997), increased student creativity, lower dropout rates, and increased social skills (Catterall, 1998; Luftig, 1995).  Researchers also report that students involved in the arts exhibit higher academic achievement than their peers who are not involved in the arts (Catterall, 1998; Catterall, Chapleau, & Iwanaga, 1999; Deasy, 2002; Fowler, 1996; Hetland, 2000; Luftig, 1995, Murfee, 1995; Welch & Greene, 1995)."

Smithrim, Katharine, and Rena Upitis. “Learning through the Arts: Lessons of Engagement” Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation Vol. 28, No. 1/2 (2005): 109-127. Web. 21 Nov. 2015

“Thus, the histories of music and quantum physics are inextricably linked, as Einstein recognized when he proclaimed Planck’s version of Bohr’s atomic model ‘the highest form of musicality in the sphere of thought’ – a double tribute to its ‘miraculous’ harmony with experimental results and its literally musical structure. Einstein went on to say that his own relativity theory ‘..occurred to me by intuition. And music is the driving force behind this intuition. My parents had me study the violin from the time I was six. My new discovery is the result of a musical perception.’” (52)

Root-Bernstein, Robert S. “Music, Creativity and Scientific Thinking” Leonardo Vol. 34, No. 1 (2001): 63-68. Web. 21 Nov. 2015