Art in the classroom

As a future teacher I think that it is important to be aware of the many challenges that we will be faced with in the classroom, which includes dealing with children and their emotional issues. One teacher has found a way to promote art therapy techniques to diagnose stress. I believe that it is critical to have art incorporated into a teachers weekly curriculum, especially in elementary classrooms.
Although as teachers we are not trained to have actual "art therapy" sessions with our students, only a licensed art therapist who is properly trained can help foster a true art therapy experience. However, the process of making art can help children overcome physical and emotional problems by using creative outlets to express their emotions. Art therapy is used on the belief that this creative process involved in the making of art is healing and life enhancing. There are various forms of art therapy such as: drawings, painting, sculpture, collage, sand, puppets, clay, mask or wand making. Art provides a way for young children to express the unspoken words of emotional conflicts in a healthy manner. It also provides children an opportunity to use art when words are not enough. Sometimes events in a child’s life are so traumatic or painful that words do not begin to express their feelings. Children may also have experiences in which they have not yet acquired the adult vocabulary to describe what happened. That is why it is so important to have specific classroom time set aside to allow children the time to express themselves through different types art media.