Funding Education

This is why I think education funding is important:

What bothers me about cuts in elementary schools is that Art and PE are the two subject’s administrators, who have no real connection with teaching, think are not important, so are the first to go.  These are the two subjects I taught.

I learned a tremendous amount from these children in my classes, on both a physical and a psychological level.  Part of my job was to evaluate these kids, and this was important because motor skills at that age will reflect whether or not there will be psychological problems later on in their life. 

In my art classes, I watched how a child would use a pair of scissors, or a pencil, etc.  Or in my PE classes I watched for unusual uses of their legs and arms, or their balance.  That may not sound like much, but coordination is extremely important for a future healthy development. 

Social skills were ongoing in my teaching, and are overall the most important aspect of the learning process.  These classes give away so much about a child's skills with another individual, when you see how they interact with their peers.  Every child is different, individual, and when in a classroom, under strict rules of teaching and often quite time, these skills are ignored or overlooked.

Art gives way to freedom of expression, and shows us what that child goes through on a daily basis; showing up in those personal moments when pencil or brush hits that paper surface.  A tactile observation, with their eyes closed, gives them a way of seeing what’s before them, seeing with their imagination, broadening their view of all things around them.

I attended ongoing workshops, which was part of my training, and believe it or not, performing arts was part of this too.  Whatever the age of those children, or whatever they were learning in their classrooms, I incorporated those subjects into their art projects.  They would, either in groups or individually, perform their alphabets, or numbers, etc….This was my way of reinforcing memory retention for those subjects.  They, themselves, became a visual work of art.

How a child receives information is individual and personal, and you never really know what a child is capable of learning, unless a child is singled out and tested.  And that is not always possible from a standpoint of finances.  So I took this challenge on.  A rewarding process, for me, is an understatement.