In schools, the arts have kind of been pushed to the side and seen as not important. Thankfully, the Governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu proposed an increase to the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts' grants program. He proposed a 126% increase, which would take it from $233,000 to $505,000. This sounds like a big jump, and it is, but in reality it's not.
The grant makes money available for nonprofit arts organizations, schools, health care facilities and community arts activities. This means that money has to be divided among these different areas, so the arts still aren't getting that much.
In the newsletter where this was reported, Mary McLaughlin, the author said, "We are grateful for the governor's vision and leadership and the Legislature's understanding that investing in the arts is important for New Hampshire's quality of life and economy." This is great, but it got me thinking. Why do the arts need to have grants? Why doesn't sports? I haven't heard of sports programs needing a grant.
She had also said, "Going forward, Arts4NH will work to ensure that the arts play a bigger role in public education and health care..." (McLaughlin). I feel like if they really want to ensure that it plays a big role in our education, our schools should actually include more money in their actual budget.
Now I know not all schools have money to put towards the arts, but I know, for example, my school has more than enough. The problem is that our school is very focused on sports, and one of the reasons is because the majority of the school plays some kind of sport. Because of this, theater isn't though about as that important because not as many people do it.
But that is far from true.
What's Going on Around the World?
So, that was only happening in New Hampshire. But what's going on around the rest of the world?
I read an article about how Finland has the best education system, and that the rest of us actually can achieve what they have.
One important lesson learned from their successful system is that "The quality of education shouldn't be judged by the level of literacy and numeracy test scores alone. Successful education systems are designed to emphasize whole-child development, equity of education outcomes, well being, and arts, music, drama and physical education as important elements of curriculum." (Strauss)
This is a very important lesson. I feel that test scores, especially scores like the SATs, don't reflect students intelligence at all. Whole-child development would be an amazing way to teach students. Also, having arts, music, drama, and physical education be seen as important elements is very critical. I feel right now that physical education already is and not so much the arts.
A way we can incorporate the arts into the curriculum is to make theater into an actual class. A problem with that, however, is that I feel like if there were to be cuts, the drama class would be cut first.
Citations
McLaughlin, Mary. "Letter: A win for the arts in New Hampshire." Concord
Monitor, 12 Nov. 2019. Concord Monitor, www.concordmonitor.com/
Arts-in-New-Hampshire-30146620. Accessed 5 Dec. 2019.
Strauss, Valerie. "What Finland is really doing to improve its acclaimed
schools." The Washington Post, 30 Aug. 2019. The Washington Post,
www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/08/30/
what-finland-is-really-doing-improve-its-acclaimed-schools/. Accessed 5
Dec. 2019.
Dec. 2019.
I totally agree that students focus more on the grades than the actual learning in school. Personally, I think that takes away the value of an education.
ReplyDeleteA well-focused post.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, we used to have a theater program as a school, but it did get cut when there were budget issues. Do you think the process of the district goes through when it makes cuts should be more transparent? They discuss cuts at school board meetings, but do many people go to such meetings?
I did hear about the class and I think that's a very good and interesting idea to have one. I asked one of my teachers about the meetings and she didn't really know how many people actually go, so I'm not sure.
DeleteI like your approach to this blog post. Being an athlete I never really looked at how much we got compared to how much everyone else got. It was a great change in perspective for me.
ReplyDeleteAlso - I agree that test scores don't really show who we are or what we know. But I also disagree because testing shows what we know or need to know to improve. If we were to engage in this approach, how would we stay on track to completing a class if we focus on everyone getting a solid foundation?