Something I noticed...

As I was volunteering for Elon Service Day today, I was placed at Sedalia Elementary School. I was able to walk around the classrooms to see the daily schedules of the students. One thing that I noticed was that (in a 3rd grader's weekely schedule) students are only given 35 minutes of art and music a week. I was completely shocked. This is exactly what we were covering in Issues the other day...people are willing to cut arts programs from schools because they do not want their taxes to go towards paying for such "nonsense" "hobbies" in schools. I find this to be absolutely ridiculous. A friend and I were talking about numerous studies that have come out supporting continued education in the arts for better overall skills. I have enough fights while at school over the merit of art and art history. I see now that the problem is more serious than I ever thought. It stems from issues beginning at the foundations of the education system. This reminds me of class discussion the other day about Jesse Helms and the NEA. This issues opens up an entirely new can of worms, but I cannot believe that the amount of support that the NEA can offer has been sliced down to hardly anything because of an emphasis on this supposed "moral" and "virtuous" society. Controversy exists at the very core of our existence. It cannot be censored by anyone like what Helms was proposing. I have become more passionate about how political candidates choose to respond to these issues although clearly this importance is not on everyone's radars. I just think that it is ridiculous that children in the North Carolina school systems spend 450 minutes on math a week and only 35 minutes on art, music, and even p.e. a week. What are these children being raised to learn and know? There is such an emphasis on the "end of year" tests that perhaps dictate the amount of funding these public schools receive. I have gone to private school all my life where the true quality of academics has been placed at the forefront. We were not solely interested in passing tests on certain material at the end of the year. Public schools in the area seem to be only focused on these tests at the detriment of all artistic forms of expression. If these children are not exposed to these things at their age, I don't know what kind of children will be raised over the next few years. Clearly ones with fantastic math skills with no ways to form a sense of individual expression within school. This is just frustrating...