It is course selection time in my school and it feels like a fight for survival. I teach an elective. The demand for my classes could fill 10 periods a day according to the guidance department. Yet, I fight for my survival every year. We have become a training ground for cops. The number of criminal justice courses is mind boggling. Then there is the plethora of AP courses being added. I took AP courses in high school. Are there really that many kids of that caliber in every school? No. But a number of AP courses in your course of studies sure makes your school look like it has a rigorous program.
And there is that word: rigor. How rigorous is your program if the majority of your teachers use all provided materials from the textbook company or the college board? How rigorous is your program if the campus cop is the one doing most of the teaching when they do not have a teaching degree? How rigorous is your program if the main goal is to get everyone into college, even though most of them drop out within two years?
So the guidance department has to shift kids to the new courses. Then there are the teachers that pressure your kids to take their classes, despite what the student wants. And what are the students doing one, two, three years later? Dropped out of the college we bragged about them getting into. Dropped out of the pre-med, pre-law, pre-whatever program because they were never really suited for it anyway.
So The Guardian recently published an article about why Britain should not be lessening the emphasis and offerings of the arts in schools. It talked about the role the arts plays in educating the whole person. There are benefits to an exposure to and an understanding of the arts that go beyond career prospects. The increase in empathy, ability to assess and analyze, the ability to interpret a situation... These are all tied to a strong foundation in the arts.
Then I think of an article I read over 10 years ago. A city had an art museum educator take a bunch of cops on a tour of the place. She taught them how to interpret the works they were looking at. They then took that ability to interpret and role played assessing a situation on the job. They learned to deescalate a situation or get to the root of an issue much more effectively. This didn't just help them but also helped those in the community they police.
So all of this is on my mind and I start to think about my kids. There are those with an innate talent who use it post graduation and those who waste it. I see that those who eliminate the creative part of themselves lost something in their personalities. Those who lost the creativity and find it again have conveyed to me that they had a sense of loss when they were not creating. I don't think everyone can have a career in the arts. I don't want to see that. Society needs people to fulfill a variety of needs. But if you keep connected to the creative side of you, you take those lessons and skills into whatever you do. If you drop your creative side, dealing drugs, stealing people's money by working on Wall Street, working as a lawyer, whatever shady thing you do makes you devoid of any substance. Pick up the camera, drawing pen, guitar, journal, and stay in touch with your creative side.
This isn't for me. I don't have many years left in me if this place keeps going the way it is. But I love and care about my kids and what happens to them after they leave me. What kind of member of society will they be? Will they help society shift to being more caring for each other, able to read who needs help and caring and wanting to give that love and care? Or will they be chasing the next thrill or wad of cash, regardless of who they hurt in trying to make that deal? This country has enough cops, corrections officers, lawyers, and financial robbers. We need more humans.
