Here in California, the arts have already been slashed from school curriculums as a core subject. Essentially, the primary schools teach just enough art to get by. At my children’s school, that translates into a few visual art lessons in the classroom (where messy paint and such is not involved) and five lessons conducted by PTA volunteer art docents in one entire school year. That’s right. You heard me. F-I-V-E lessons a YEAR. Pathetic really, isn’t it? The school district we are in recommends that teachers use a program called Arts Attack, which is basically a program in a box. I’ve actually heard people say “It’s really good.” Interesting how much our standards have been lowered where the arts are concerned.
If you want your child to be exposed to music, they must do that as an extra curricular activity. If the child misses a class because of instrumental class instruction, the child is required to make up what was missed in the regular class. Don’t get me wrong, our school is fantastic. Our standardized state test scores are always high and “greatschools.org” rates our school very highly. Additionally, we have a wonderful community of parent volunteers and a supportive administration. What we don’t have is the arts as part of our curriculum, and the children will suffer because of it.
Recently, I received a link to an youtube video that really made a lot of sense which I would like to share.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
Happy Saturday and thanks for stopping by.
