It is well known that when schools have budget dilemmas, the arts are the first victim.
What is not widely known is the impact of dismissing art from our children’s lives.
‘Champions of Change, the Impact of the Arts on Learning’ is the most comprehensive study on the topic of student engagement in the fine arts and how it relates to academic success.
The studio builds a strong foundation for students who achieve higher levels of academic success and in higher numbers overall when involved with the fine arts.
According to the study;
– 82.6% of 8th graders mostly got A’s and B’s who were heavily involved in fine arts vs. 67.2% who got A’s and B’s who were not.
– 30.07% of respondents who participate in fine arts perform community service where only 6.28% of respondents who do not participate in fine arts perform community service.
– Students who are not heavily involved in the fine arts are more than twice as likely to drop out of school by the 10th grade.
– 56.64% of those surveyed who practice fine arts read for pleasure where only 34. Most likely you will find a handful of musical instruments in good condition collecting dust in a garage or attic.
These are just some of the findings of the particular study.
Fine art helps teach students much more than how to draw roses in a vase or how to play the violin.
Fine art helps the creative side of your child’s mind grow, instills discipline, provides a sense of pride, self-esteem and achievement.
These attributes not only help students do better academically, but they also do better in their adult life, with their career, their new family, their emotional well-being.
So what do you do if your child’s school has made significant cuts to its arts program?
Your first option is, of course, private lessons. There are pros and cons to be aware of when going down this route.
Let’s look at the pros first.
First, due to budget cuts and pressure on schools to make sure their students score well on standardized tests (interestingly, students who are involved in the arts score better on average), the arts receive less attention. than other subjects in school. Thus the quality of the lesson is diluted. Which means your child has an excellent opportunity to get better fine arts instruction in a professional fine arts instructional setting. Classes are smaller, sometimes even one on one. The instructor only has to teach that particular art form.
The other advantage of leaving school for a fine arts education is that your child’s success is closely tied to the income of the instructors.
A public school teacher who has half of her art class receiving failing grades will still receive the same pay at the end of the week. The world equivalent of private art instruction would mean a bankrupt business in no time. Giving private art classes is a business. They must produce a good product or risk not being present in the future.
The biggest downside to private lessons is, of course, if you can’t afford them for your child.
Private lessons cost money. Knowing the benefits of a child being educated in fine arts, he would happily drive a less luxurious car or eat out less often to ensure his fine arts education.
However, this may not be an option if, for example, you are a single parent and there is too much month left after your money runs out.
To wrap up this point, private lessons are great, often better than those provided even at schools that have ample budgets for art and music.
You may need an alternative solution if you are on a budget.
There are things you can do to help your local school raise money for its arts programs.
First and foremost is fundraising. You can do it in many ways. For example, at my high school in Burbank, California, a parent spoke with NBC studio executives. Two months later, NBC donated professional video and editing equipment to our school. Everything for the beautiful art of filmmaking was in our school.
It may take a little creative thinking and a lot of legwork, but local businesses or local celebrities could be a fantastic source of funding for your school. In return they get good public relations.
Of course you have the traditional fundraising events. A car wash, garage sales, silent auctions, etc. The real breaking point for the types of fundraisers listed above is having the right person in charge to ensure all the details are taken care of and everyone does what they’re supposed to do. If no one shows up at the car wash because no one knew about it, it’s not going to do anyone any good. Neither did the dozen cookies at the bake sale.
Organize and communicate.
I know a good amount of people. More relevantly, I meet people who know more people than I could ever hope to meet. When faced with the daunting task of adapting your school’s classical music program with instruments, it can seem overwhelming.
However, when you have a network of hundreds of concerned people, it looks more like this.
An email/phone call/postal mail goes to your network about the problem.
They all look around their house and ask people they know for donations of spare instruments (I actually donated a really nice classical guitar to a school last year).
You may find some instruments in excellent condition that have been sitting in cabinets and garages untouched for 20 years.
Now you invite your network and everyone you know in your network to a fundraising bowling night. You raise twenty dollars for everyone who attends. Show of 50 people. There’s $1000 right there for new instruments.
Next week you’ll get local businesses and people in your network to donate items of value for auction. Students can hand out flyers and put up signs in store fronts, place ads in online classifieds and in the local newspaper, make sure their network is talking about the event with everyone they know.
The auction is a success raising $3,000.
When you have enough money for the instruments, make the kids study hard and organize a fundraiser concert, collect $10 and put the money aside. Lorn knows that a student loses his tuba somewhere.
It is evident that a dedicated group can achieve much more than an individual.
What if your school is so strapped for cash and so overcrowded that they can’t afford the fine arts teacher, let alone the space for art classes?
And what if there are no reputable local private fine arts instructional schools, or you can’t afford them right now?
At this point, you need to take matters completely into your own hands. However, you are not completely alone!
There are products on the market that, for a low cost, can still help educate your child in the fine arts.
Here is an example, for a one-time payment of $30, you can have your child take violin lessons online with Violin Master Pros.
There are also online lessons and DVD instructional programs for other musical instruments, writing, drawing, and more.
Either will be much more productive than another night of video games or cable TV.
Be careful to ask Uncle John, who plays the piano, to teach your son. Just because you know how to do something doesn’t mean you know how to teach it!
Bad lessons can quickly turn your child away from the arts. Even if your school suddenly gets a big grant for its art program, it won’t do much good if your child is stale in art.
In all our societies, the point of view regarding the importance of the arts for our children and our future must be changed.
It is a proven fact that children do better on standardized tests when involved in the fine arts. However, many schools will cut art and music to focus on better results!
A small portion of our defense budget would easily fund art and music in our schools across the country.
Many parents have the point of view, ‘if it’s not reading or arithmetic then what good is my child?’
However, the best science schools in America all have extensive fine arts programs at their universities for a reason. Help students achieve academically!
It is our job as parents, budget cuts or not, to make sure our children get the fine arts education they need.
If we don’t do it for our children, who will?