NYC Schools Failing Students With Decreased Arts Funding
As a former educator, I know how important the arts are in the classroom. I used music, art, and movement to not only get my message across, but to help students find their way into works of literature or the writing process that seemed foreign or just out of reach. We all have an innate artistic bent, it’s just a matter of tapping it and developing an appreciation for the art in the everyday.
Unfortunately for NYC school children, even the basics like crayons are being cut (and have been for a few years now). (Honestly, I’ve seen schools where there aren’t enough text books for the kids to take home, so they can only use them in class while sharing them two students to a book.)
It’s sad, mainly because of the reasoning behind it. The cuts were made before the economic crisis, back in 2006-2007. What, you might ask, is the reason a child can’t learn to play the guitar in school? Or feel the sheer joy of paint on her fingers? STANDARDIZED TESTING SCORES.
It’s one of the main reasons I left the profession. There’s such a push to get test scores up, instead of helping students learn how to reason and think for themselves. A piece of paper with a number on it means nothing at the end of the day if a student can’t problem solve or find a creative solution for life’s daily challenges.
The arts help open up the channels to help children (and adults) become more well rounded people, appreciate the beauty in the world around them, and understand different people and cultures through the common languages of music, dance, art. Most importantly, they give many children who can’t find their voices through math, science, and language a way to express themselves.
New York City Council Member Robert Jackson summed it up best in an article in Crain’s:
A frame work that emphasizes test scores has resulted in a significant diversion of resources away from arts education. But the real irony is that students with access to arts education have been shown to produce superior academic achievement on standardized tests, the very goal that is being pursued.
–Sue
Add comment July 1st, 2010
