🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4l1gra$p0d@solaris.cc.vt.edu>, bstack@vt.edu (Brian Stack) writes:


|> Hello Calire!
|> My name is Heather Johnson (I'm using my friend's computer so that's why
|> it is posted as Brian Stack.)  Anyway, I am a junior at Virginia Tech, 
|> USA in Early Childhood Education.  For one of my classes, I have been 
|> asked to see what parents, teachers and students think of art and music 
|> in schools.  If you could answer these questions or just give me your 
|> feeling on these subjects in general.  Also feel free to have other 
|> friends or your parents or teachers write back.  Thank you, Heather
|> Is there a real need for cultural arts to be included in mainstream 
|> curriculum?  What kind of funding do teachers receive for purchasing art 
|> materials?  Who decides what is "art" and what isn't?  What does music 
|> education look like:  is there real instruction, or is it just a "free" 
|> or "fun" period?  How much emphasis should be placed on music in schools?
|> 


I don't have kids, but my wife teaches third grade. The impression I get is
that art and music stimulate essential creativity in kids which carrys over
into other subjects. A real need? For all, perhaps. For some, for sure. Some-
times my wife spends her own money for supplies. She doesn't care. She loves
the kids and considers them her own. But, for the most part, supplys are
provided by the school. Who decides what art is? The kids, of course. Music
instruction? who says "free" and "fun" don't serve to educate and inform. 
If not for school programs, the only music kids would hear would be from MTV and
the radio. They might not hear traditional folk music and classical, for
instance, if it was left up to the parent. My wife's kids listen to all
sorts of (appropriate, as determined by the school standard) music in the
classroom. My wife was told by the art teacher that she was able to pick
out my wife's students. Because their art projects always included and snake
or a lizard or bug incorporated in the design. I loved art and music in
school, myself. But, that's just me.