If only class was a little more like Sesame Street, more butts would be in the seats of 120 Budig. Since preschool, our curricula have steadily decreased in developing the imagination. Consequently, the excitement about school and the passion for learning children often display is lost.

The current system weans children off their markers and crayons in favor of word processors and blue books. Teachers pack knowledge into their students’ heads, hoping they’ll retain a fraction of it and use it in the world. Every student has asked, “When am I ever going to need this?”

Instead of making education about packing knowledge into students’ heads, why not make it about enticing them to explore their world?

It’s like the old saying, “if you give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, but teach him to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” Giving a mind knowledge is far less effective than teaching a mind to learn.

Education only works when students can make it their own, conceptualizing the material in their own terms. Of course, coercing students into thinking the extra mile isn’t automatic.

Emphasizing the arts in our schools can spark that interest. Giving students the opportunity to work with, create, and explore art primes their brains to think critically.

Art has a unique power to engage the mind. It can reach students who are otherwise uninterested in school by offering curiosity as a catalyst in all academic realms. It’s an all-in-one mental workout that makes the engineers of the Bowflex Home Gym jealous.

Singing, acting, drawing, reading and writing have shaped who I am, as a student and as a person. I’ve had mentors who gave me an outlet to my creative impulses. My happiest moments are when I can sit down with a book or a pen and paper with a cup of coffee and let my mind wander. Most importantly, with the conceptual, analytical and abstract thinking tools I acquired trying to improve my artistic endeavors I discovered a greater appreciation for my English, history and science classes.

Experiencing the passion of creating something new can stimulate one’s intelligence in ways a textbook can’t. Out of creativity, passion is born. Glazed-over expressions die and classroom desktops remain drool free. Minds that are stimulated in this way will show improved interest and performance across the board.

My freshman year at the University, I took Calculus I, passed and thanked the gods I never had to take a math class again. I learned the formulas but couldn’t explain what calculus was any better than the farcical MTV boy-band 2Ge+her in their hit song “You + Me = Us.” Then one day, bored moving from stoplight to stoplight, curiosity kicked in. Mentally, I graphed my car’s speed. Over that I drew the trajectory of my acceleration. Then considered the acceleration (derivative) of acceleration. A light went on. It was an exciting moment for me.

Many people arrive at an understanding of calculus, the Krebs cycle and the sociopolitical consequences of WWII through a textbook, but teaching the arts can reach disenchanted students who wouldn’t otherwise open those textbooks. It opens them to a world they are comfortable to freely explore, manipulate and understand. It has the power to continually expand the mind, and in an age where good teachers are a scarce commodity, to do it without direct instruction. If we continue to develop students’ imaginations like Sesame Street has done for over 4,000 episodes, maybe our 1,000-person lecture halls will actually see 1,000 students wandering in.