Bigger Than ‘Hot Cheetos and Takis’-
Why Arts Education Matters
As a video created in a after-school program goes viral, Kristin Braswell discusses the importance of giving children the opportunity to express their creativity
When I was 10, my mother enrolled me in a painting class that met every Saturday at a local museum. We were novices of course, but, the encouragement we received to create our own masterpiece is what mattered; it’s what set the stage for the idea that anything was possible if we put our creative minds to the task. At my public elementary school, students excitedly got together twice a week to produce a cacophony of sounds in music class. It did not matter that we sounded like an explosion of confusion. In our minds, we were a legitimate orchestra. We were artists given the opportunity to create. Read more…
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First Online With Fran: The First 100 Stories Campaign National Arts in Education Week, September 9-15, 2012
The Arts continue to be cut from school curriculums across the nation. Despite arts advocacy groups’ efforts to prevent the decline of arts inclusion, the budgetary solution remains to be that the arts are perceived as extra-curricular and disposable. In Chris Cleave’s novel Little Bee, the central character decided to right a wrong by collecting stories: “One story makes you weak. But as soon as we have one-hundred stories, you will be strong.” Similarly, we can do the same for the Arts. Here’s how: Let’s hear it from you: Teachers! Students! Graduates! Parents! Artists! |