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The elimination of art classes is nothing new. I loved going to art class during my elementary years, even though I wasn't the world's best artist. It was nice having a creative outlet.
I really loved choir class more than anything.
8th grade is when I really started seeing the end of recess. K-7th recess was our time to burn off extra stream. I hear from parents today that a lot of the kids don't even have recess. 8th-12th...hardly any PE. I had PE for one semester during 9th grade. That's it. I would have loved to have access to a school gym (treadmill, weights, ellipitcal, exercise bike, etc). There is no reason schools can't partner up with the business community to get school gyms. There's also no reason they can't partner with the business community for arts education.
Having art and PE classes would help a lot. PE would help kids shake off some of that excess energy and help try to put a dent in our childhood obesity stats. [Healthy cafeteria food would help too but that's another thread...]
I wouldn't have a problem with cutting back on PE for kids that are active in after school sports. Give the kids the option of either participating in at least 2 seasons of an after school sport or making them take PE. In our school 80+% of the kids would not need to take PE classes and quite frankly, they get more of a workout in sports then they do in PE.
We are very lucky that the arts are highly valued in our school. We have extensive music programs, theater, dance, art, etc. We have 3 full time band directors at the high school with 7 concert bands, 3 jazz bands, numerous ensemble groups and one of the best marching bands in the nation. There are about 1800 students 9-12 in our high school and about 95% of them are involved in some form of arts education--about 60% in the band alone.
No one has mentioned cutting back on library time but that's something that is often overlooked. Today's librarians do much more then help kids pick out books. Their primary purpose is to teach them to research and to instill a love of reading. Both can be done in the classroom and, in fact, should be integrated into most lessons, but school librarians have been trained very well in these skills. As much as I rely on google, there are many ways to investigate a topic and that needs to be taught early.
Texas passed a law 3 years ago that mandates 30 minutes daily PE (or structured recess) for students, so not only do we have PE, we HAVE to have it, thankfully!
Our elementary kids have a daily block of 'specials' which include PE, Music, Library and Computer. PE daily, the others alternating...library is once a week, Computer and Music are 2 days a week.
Art is taught once or twice a month by a parent volunteer, although individual classes still do various things within the concept of art. (My son's 1st grade class did a neat lesson on Jackson Pollack, for instance)
Once they hit middle school all of those are offered as individual elective classes, except PE which is required.
At this point, our district seems to have no plan to ever cut out those classes, but instead reduces budget through attrition first and selective reduction that doesn't affect the front line of teaching second.
They have in the past reduced Librarian, Nurses and Counselors so that they were working for two separate schools instead of one per campus, and having part time assistants when they were not on campus themselves. I think we are back to full time on all campuses of each of those now.
There is no reason schools can't partner up with the business community to get school gyms. There's also no reason they can't partner with the business community for arts education.
The problem isn't just the money for supplies, equipment, or space. The problem is the length of the school day is mandated by state laws, and the curriculum they are required to cover in that time is mandated by both state and federal laws. Usually there just isn't time in the day to teach art and PE.
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I hear from parents today that a lot of the kids don't even have recess.
The City of Chicago had eliminated recess, too, until parents started protesting. One parent took up the cause and gathered a following, that attended school council meetings, and presented research about the value of research--how the brain retains information better if it has breaks to let that information sink in, rather than trying to cram it all in continuously non-stop, and how research gives children a chance to interact with each other and learn negotiation, and teamwork, and how to get along with others, etc. So they have recess again (although I think they rely on volunteers to monitor the playground because they can't afford to pay them).
Another area that has been tragically cut but hasn't gotten much attention is the lunchtime. In the City of Chicago, students get a mere twenty minutes. Even the lowest-paid grunt gets a thirty minute lunch break! The twenty minutes includes time to move through the lunch line and return their trays, so students hardly have time to digest their food before they are hussled on to class again. It is so bad for their digestion, and again, this should be a chance to let children's brains rest, rejuvenate, and recuperate, as well as a chance for children to learn interpersonal skills.
Music and PE are very important for a child's development. There is a strong correlation between music and math skills, for example. PE isn't just about keeping a normal BMI; it's also about learning sportsmanship and playing as a team member. And library time is essential to building important learning skills, as was more eloquently pointed out by another poster.
Art, P.E. and other electives could be combined and split up into one "special" period per day. Monday is P.E., Tuesday is sculpture, Wednesday is guitar etc etc. As it is now in California (ok, maybe just LAUSD not sure), kids have to have one full period per day every day of the week just for P.E. They crowd 75 kids into a P.E. "class", roll balls out to the kids and tell them to go at it. There are no formal lessons in such a class; no instruction on fitness or nutrition. Hardly an intelligent use of time. And, of course, since that P.E. period is mandated, there is less time for other electives. If you did what I suggest above, kids could still get regular exposure to several different speciality/elective areas without it having to take up such a large chunk of their day.
I wouldn't have a problem with cutting back on PE for kids that are active in after school sports. Give the kids the option of either participating in at least 2 seasons of an after school sport or making them take PE. In our school 80+% of the kids would not need to take PE classes and quite frankly, they get more of a workout in sports then they do in PE.
That's how it was when I was in high school. The state mandated 2 or 4 (I forget) semesters of PE at a high school level, but athletics counted as a PE class. As it should! When I played soccer, practice was 2:30-5 every day, with tournaments on Saturdays often times. That's far more exercise than the regular 45 minutes a day regular PE classes had, and it meant that they could hire less PE teachers since the need was so much less. (Athletics coaches were either teachers getting an extra stipend, or college students getting paid diddly squat, so much cheaper than an additional full time teacher).
Plus, it allowed the school to offer all kinds of really cool athletics, and students could waive out of the requirement if they were really into another sport. My friends got PE credit for professional ballet dancing, competitive horseback riding, and junior olympic swim practice. Then they didn't have to waste a period during the day taking goofy "jog a lap around the track" PE class, and could take academic courses instead.
I wouldn't have a problem with cutting back on PE for kids that are active in after school sports. Give the kids the option of either participating in at least 2 seasons of an after school sport or making them take PE. In our school 80+% of the kids would not need to take PE classes and quite frankly, they get more of a workout in sports then they do in PE.
We are very lucky that the arts are highly valued in our school. We have extensive music programs, theater, dance, art, etc. We have 3 full time band directors at the high school with 7 concert bands, 3 jazz bands, numerous ensemble groups and one of the best marching bands in the nation. There are about 1800 students 9-12 in our high school and about 95% of them are involved in some form of arts education--about 60% in the band alone.
No disagreement there.
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Originally Posted by toobusytoday
No one has mentioned cutting back on library time but that's something that is often overlooked. Today's librarians do much more then help kids pick out books. Their primary purpose is to teach them to research and to instill a love of reading. Both can be done in the classroom and, in fact, should be integrated into most lessons, but school librarians have been trained very well in these skills. As much as I rely on google, there are many ways to investigate a topic and that needs to be taught early.
That is very true.
In my high school, you mainly went to the library before school, during lunch (if the cafeteria monitors allowed you to...), and after school.
Sometimes we went during class time and we did learn how to do research BUT I was in IB. I know a lot of the kids in regular classes didn't visit the library as often.
I definitely think some research skills are being left out in the age of Google. I love going to the different websites of libraries in the area to search their databases and I like cracking open an actual book to help with my research.
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Originally Posted by skyway31
Art, P.E. and other electives could be combined and split up into one "special" period per day. Monday is P.E., Tuesday is sculpture, Wednesday is guitar etc etc. As it is now in California (ok, maybe just LAUSD not sure), kids have to have one full period per day every day of the week just for P.E. They crowd 75 kids into a P.E. "class", roll balls out to the kids and tell them to go at it. There are no formal lessons in such a class; no instruction on fitness or nutrition. Hardly an intelligent use of time. And, of course, since that P.E. period is mandated, there is less time for other electives. If you did what I suggest above, kids could still get regular exposure to several different speciality/elective areas without it having to take up such a large chunk of their day.
I like that I idea.
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8th-12th...hardly any PE. I had PE for one semester during 9th grade. That's it. I would have loved to have access to a school gym (treadmill, weights, ellipitcal, exercise bike, etc). There is no reason schools can't partner up with the business community to get school gyms. There's also no reason they can't partner with the business community for arts education.
