If you can do it in Venezuela...

This video represents the musical arts, but its message is just as important to the visual arts. The argument in the video is that without this program, many of these children will succumb to crime and violence but with this program they now have an alternative. Its been working for years and only seems to keep growing. Programs set place in California have not been so successful.

So, I believe most Californians have been bombarded with the idea that schools have been facing major financial problems.  This affects students and parents in many ways. In particular the effect that budget cuts have on already schools with a struggling income is heaviest. Many minority students and students that live in low-income areas are facing a terrible struggle to move ahead. Teachers are being cut constantly and classes are increasing dramatically. Too some parents, a lack of faith in public school systems could only create a wider gap between those with financial options and those without.

Many writers and myself included are looking back to our own education with rose colored glasses. I remember dreading the music classes that were mandatory for graduation. I also remeber looking forward to the many art classes offered and being told I can only take so many, as general education requirements were a priority. In a previous blog, I told a story of how my brother claimed not to be able to understand art because it was too intellectual for him. The truth is only that he never had my privileged options to even take a art history class.

There are some alternatives that teachers and parents are trying to take. One is to fill the budget cuts themselves and raise money for lost and cut programs. Again I look back and realize the only time my parents assisted my schools is when it was completely necessary such as field trips or dances. Now I watch my parents weekly doing things for my 15 year old brother and ten year old sister. Sitting in classes all day, contributing many different items, but mostly time. It was strange for me to witness at first, but I realize it is necessary if the parents want their children to advance wuith minimal budgeting help coming from the state.

So I have mentioned how the arts are dramatically being altered by statewide cuts but why not? Why shouldn't we cut something as seemingly trivial as art? Here are some of my personal reasons that I believe are important to preserving the arts in the school programs k-12.

1. Art enriches everyday life: Art is all around us as I have mentioned before. If every building and every logo, painting, and clothes looked the same, life would be boring.

2. Art tells history: Without art, we would have little idea about what happened in cultures that didnt have a written history in the beginning. This includes countries such as Mexico, India, Africa, even the Native Americans. Do we just start history when Europeans began conquering these places?!?

3. Art is therapeutic: I have a confession, when my brother was born, we were told that he had many medical problems and would not live very long (Luckily the doctors were wrong, my brither is today very healthy). I went to a counselor with extreme depression, having at the age of 12 never really faced the idea of someone I loved dying. The counselor found that the best way to communicate with me is when I was making art. This is not a new concept and is a growing field.

4. Art gives new looks to old ideas: When I would pick up my sister from her after-school art classes, they would hang all the previous pictures from the week before. Even though they were all given the same subject "The United States" every child had a different concept of what the "United States" was visually. I was very interesting to see such diversity in such young minds.

I'm sure I have more ideas but I prefer this short article to explain how I feel. Life without art would most definitely be "Eh..."