No art, my kids wont go to public school. I SO appreciate the art my kids get in their very diverse public school, it is one of the main reasons we are so happy with our MCPS scools--TPES and PBES in Takoma Park

Anonymous wrote:Art is a joke in high school. One of the courses that kids can take is ceramics. They sit around and shoot clay balls at each other all day or make clay penises.

And in my HS the biology teacher stopped doing dissections because some kids got rowdy and tossed around the dead frogs. I guess according to your logic they should have just cut the entire science program.

Art is important. It enriches the healthy growth of the kid. People who denies the importance of art education is totally ignorant. I pay money to make my kids learn art.

they can draw pictures at home if they want to. Many good artists were self taught.
Math, English, Science - everything else is just noise.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You anti-enrichment, anti-education people scare me. Read a few of the dozens of studies on the positive impact that incorporating the arts in education has on learning and then repost.

Signed,
Why I send my children to private school.

Please keep your children in private school so they will not have to mingle with the common folk.

Trust me, we are common folk. Do you really think that all families in privates are super wealthy elitists? We just value a well-rounded educational experience for our children. For all children.

But you can't get that in public school, so we pony up for private. Our decision where to send our children to school has ZERO to do with demographics or socio-economic levels and everything to do with curricula and quality of instruction.

\

+1. The lack of "extras," including PE and art, is one of the main reasons we stretch our budget to send send our kids to private school. We want our kids to be well-rounded and strongly believe in the importance of a well-rounded education. I won't go so far at to say that we're "common folk," but we're not rich elitists either. The demographics at our private school don't differ that much from the demographics at our public.

I don't think knowing how to create art per se is necessary for success, but I do believe that knowing how to think creatively is. The value in classes like art, theater and music is that they do just this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You anti-enrichment, anti-education people scare me. Read a few of the dozens of studies on the positive impact that incorporating the arts in education has on learning and then repost.

Signed,
Why I send my children to private school.

Please keep your children in private school so they will not have to mingle with the common folk.

Trust me, we are common folk. Do you really think that all families in privates are super wealthy elitists? We just value a well-rounded educational experience for our children. For all children.

But you can't get that in public school, so we pony up for private. Our decision where to send our children to school has ZERO to do with demographics or socio-economic levels and everything to do with curricula and quality of instruction.

B.S. You know damned well that you don't want your darlings to rub shoulders with the blacks from the projects and the homies from the ghetto.

Settle on down there.
First of all, you have no idea what race my family is, or where we live. Or the demos of our school. So I would be a little more careful with your choice of words. Anger issues? Take it somewhere else.
We are talking about the importance of arts in education. I have no idea why you think that an issue of privilege, nor do I care. We should be working toward ensuring that ALL children have access to enriched curricula. Until that is available in our public school system, our family chose private school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You anti-enrichment, anti-education people scare me. Read a few of the dozens of studies on the positive impact that incorporating the arts in education has on learning and then repost.

Signed,
Why I send my children to private school.

Please keep your children in private school so they will not have to mingle with the common folk.

Trust me, we are common folk. Do you really think that all families in privates are super wealthy elitists? We just value a well-rounded educational experience for our children. For all children.

But you can't get that in public school, so we pony up for private. Our decision where to send our children to school has ZERO to do with demographics or socio-economic levels and everything to do with curricula and quality of instruction.

B.S. You know damned well that you don't want your darlings to rub shoulders with the blacks from the projects and the homies from the ghetto.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You anti-enrichment, anti-education people scare me. Read a few of the dozens of studies on the positive impact that incorporating the arts in education has on learning and then repost.

Signed,
Why I send my children to private school.

Please keep your children in private school so they will not have to mingle with the common folk.

Trust me, we are common folk. Do you really think that all families in privates are super wealthy elitists? We just value a well-rounded educational experience for our children. For all children.

But you can't get that in public school, so we pony up for private. Our decision where to send our children to school has ZERO to do with demographics or socio-economic levels and everything to do with curricula and quality of instruction.

Art is a joke in high school. One of the courses that kids can take is ceramics. They sit around and shoot clay balls at each other all day or make clay penises.

Anonymous wrote:I hated art and never understood why we had to take art. Gym, understandable, we need to be fit but art? WTF do I need that for in life? We can do without.

Yep, I hated math myself. It really should be eliminated from the curriculum. Oh, wait, you mean eliminating subjects we personally dislike isn't a sound foundation for academic policy?

Exploring the Benefits of Art in Elementary Education

http://www.csustan.edu/honors/documents/journals/elements/Flory.pdf

"Art in the elementary classroom has great beneficial effects on student learning by stimulating the multiple intelligences present in a typical group of students. Art activities can serve as a bridge to understanding for students; in addition, art has the potential to act as therapy for students with emotional issues. During early development, students who have difficulty verbalizing ideas can use art as an alternative way to express themselves. With the current emphasis on
standardization and high stakes testing, art has lost a place in the curriculum, to the disservice of the students emotionally and cognitively. Unfortunately, a typical classroom teaches primarily to visual and auditory learners while leaving others by the wayside. Effective use of art in the classroom can bridge learning across all of the multiple intelligences and benefit all types of learners."

Art is extremely important at the elementary school level. Younger kids learn more through doing than sitting at a desk doing worksheets all day. IMO, there are not enough enrichment courses in public school and its one of the driving reasons that people go to private school. There is a big difference between doing a craft project and doing art. Elementary school art done well conveys concepts of science, math, observation, and creative expression. For the youngest ES students it also re-enforces fine motor skill development. My young son had problems with strength and fine motor coordination for writing which is very common in 4-5 year boys. Drawing classes greatly helped him practice and were less frustrating than trying to copy letters over and over again.

Early music abilities has been shown to improve academic performance for memory, auditory processing, and pattern recognition more than early reading or early basic arithmetic.
Early exposure to foreign languages also improves pattern recognition and catches kids at a point where they can learn the different vocal inflections and sounds required for more difficult languages. Drama classes develop confidence, team work and public speaking skills.

Anonymous wrote:You anti-enrichment, anti-education people scare me. Read a few of the dozens of studies on the positive impact that incorporating the arts in education has on learning and then repost.

Signed,
Why I send my children to private school.

Please keep your children in private school so they will not have to mingle with the common folk.

You anti-enrichment, anti-education people scare me. Read a few of the dozens of studies on the positive impact that incorporating the arts in education has on learning and then repost.

Signed,
Why I send my children to private school.

Get rid of art. In two years no one will notice.