ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — While “reading, ’riting and ’rithmetic” might be the famed “Three Rs” of basic education, Nancy Timmons, a Central Baldwin Middle School teacher would like to add one more: ’rt.

As in “Art.”

“It (art) helps learning and creativity,” Timmons said. “You take observational skills and make use of them. In (traditional academic) classes we are always using the left side of the brain. This accesses the right side.”

The right side of the brain, scientists say, appears to hold the mind’s creative side.

Even if a person does not make a career of art, using the right side of the brain is something that will be useful for students later in life, Timmons believes.

“Students have to compete in the job market,” Timmons said. “They will have to come up with creative ideas.”

New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman has been quoted as being a fan of art education — "Too often, the value of participation in the arts is underestimated.  The arts enrich our lives and enrich our learning. And the arts are a valuable learning tool that reinforces the other disciplines, like reading, writing, social studies, even science and math."

That creativity is on display this week, part of the school’s celebration of Youth Art Month. Walls are covered with student art, and visitors to the school are greeted by freestanding panels loaded with student art work.

Kayla Peace, a seventh-grade student at the school, has learned to see the word in a new way — starting with her hands.

“You had to draw them and you had to look at them,” said Peace.

Trying to draw her hands in three dimensions added to the problem, Peace added.

“They had a different shape, then,” she said.

To draw her hands, Peace used. “happy colors, purple, green and blue.”

Of course, learning about those colors was an opportunity for a lesson on hue, the value or lightness or darkness of what most of us call color.

Producing art projects has given Peace and her fellow students exposure to more than paints and chalk.

“We have learned sign language and Braille,” Timmons said, adding that Fairhope artist Ricky Trione, who is blind, came to Timmons’ classes and showed students how to communicate in Braille.

The students have created a plaque in clay, appropriately inscribed in Braille to thank him.

Timmons has been at CBMS for two years, after a year as an itinerant elementary art teacher for the Baldwin County Public Schools.

In fact, Timmons got one of her starts in art right at CBMS. She’s a graduate of the school, and Shelia V. Mitchell was her teacher. She also attended Elsanor Elementary and graduated from Robertsdale High.

Timmons was named “Rookie of the Year” by the Alabama Art Education Association during her first year of teaching, and was nominated this year as the “Middle Level Art Teacher of the Year,” but did not win that honor.

She’s proud of the student work on display at her school.

“I like this because it highlights student work and allows them to express themselves and gives more students an opportunity to be recognized,” Timmons said.