http://news.msn.com/us/principal-fires-security-guards-hires-art-teachers-to-save-his-school
I am wondering what people make of this. I believe that a lot of schools in America have dropped or cut way back on art, music, etc. How important or unimportant are these programs in education in general, including or outside of what they have done for this school?
My husband used to teach junior high LD/BD kids, at a separate public school where kids who couldn’t hack it in either regular classrooms or special classes at the regular public school.
When he started, he was not happy to learn that there was a security guard assigned to his classroom–not just security for the school, but a burly person in uniform to sit in his 7th grade class.
He told the school he wouldn’t teach that way and after lots of argument the principal finally agreed to let him try.
His students did better than they ever had, with a few kids making really startling leaps academically and behaviorally, and better than the 6th and 8th grade classes who remained under guard.
I don’t know what exactly to ascribe this too, but he thinks it motivated the kids just to know he didn’t think they were dangerous. This makes sense to me because expectations are important to all kids, perhaps especially those who are mostly expected to cause problems.
Anyway, to address your question my husband is a writer and poet and he integrated poetry and fiction reading and writing with other subjects. It was amazing what some kids who before could barely demonstrate basic language skills could do when they started getting interested in the art of writing.
What I’m getting at is that it may be a combination of less security, demonstrated commitment by the administration to the students and the opportunity to try and succeed at something new and creative that turned around this school.
In general I think the arts are just as important as academics for all students, not just troubled ones.
esmeralda2, please do not quote entire articles. Quote enough to make the point, then link to the original article.
[ /Moderating ]
It seems logical to say if you treat kids like criminals, they will act like criminals. Many schools are run like prisons. It’s shameful and disgusting. No adult would tolerate being treated that way, and considering the government forces kids to go to school, I think it’s a national disgrace. I find it very unsurprising that treating kids like responsible students who want to learn has better results then treating them all like felons.
The problem, of course, is that it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch: there will always be a few kids that will come to school with a pre-set narrative that school is awful and a waste of time. If you let those kids get away with shit, they set a new expectation, and otherwise decent kids follow in their footsteps. But, of course, even the horrid kids don’t deserve to be written off: they often grow up to be decent members of society if you can, you know, keep them in society. So you can’t just kick out every troublemaker, or at least you don’t want to.
It’s a Gordian Knot of a problem, and I don’t think anyone has a great solution.
Doesn’t seem logical at all, quite the opposite to me. But it’s probably true, because humans are weird.
Really? You’ve never heard that kids will live up (or down) to your expectations?
Duplicate post.
I wish I knew more about what the art teacers were doing with the students. Art, science or anything else with the capacity for creative expression has the potential to supply a child with a badly needed spource of validation, when this need is filled it is self motivating.
Kids feel less safe and do worse with security guards in school
The worst thing we can do is move away from art and music education. Seems to me that we’ve swallowed a lot of bullshit over the past couple of decades: these things are luxuries, that they don’t enhance overall learning, and they aren’t valuable to society in the same way that, say, science is. Crap, all of it. Taking creative endeavors (and physical education too) out of school is like depriving the right brain hemisphere of oxygen. People need to know how to read and write, but they also need to learn how see, create, and feel.
People are fond of saying “Not everyone is meant for college!” to the poor student. But not everyone is meant for trade school either. Maybe they would be a great sculptor, graphic artist, or musical performer. And people with crappy life circumstances especially need art. There is no better therapy than the peace that comes when you channel your physical, mental, and emotional energy into the act of creation.
I agree with monstro. My sister teaches music at a KIPP school in Texas. Most of her students are socioeconomically disadvantaged, many are ESL. For a lot of kids who struggle academically, music/theatre/art/choir are the only classes they enjoy(even if they’re bad at it). And for smarter kids, arts classes are a welcome break from the grind. Most people who are bad at math stop doing math as quickly as possible. Kids who are bad at saxophone or drawing or singing or improv, on the other hand, keep trying. Very often, they improve, which leads them to trying harder. And even a bad musician or actor or singer still gets to participate and be part of something bigger than themselves (even if they are last chair or working backstage).
There’s also a chance to forge connections with other social groups in arts classes, which can help troubled kids GREATLY. I know that, for me, making senior friends as a freshman in band camp made the transition to high school much less intimidating. I was on the fringe of the theatre group too, which was a haven for a lot of gay and “weird” kids who otherwise wouldn’t have had *anything *to look forward to. At least in my high school, theatre and band had a positive halo effect for a lot of kids who would have been rejected by every other social group.
In particular, I remember a classmate who was absolutely insufferable throughout elementary and middle school. He had 2 friends, and they were all he had. He didn’t shower much, would hiss at people who tried to talk to him, and all the girls universally agreed he was a loser. In high school, he joined theatre and turned out to be a really REALLY good actor and singer. After being cast as John the Baptist in Godspell, all the theatre people wanted to be his friend. His social circle opened way up, and he ended up being a really cool guy. Because he felt confident in one area, he was able to carry that confidence into the rest of his life. And now he’s married, expecting a baby, employed… in essence, he became a functional member of society instead of a socially-crippled shut-in. If we hadn’t had a theatre program, I shudder to think where he’d be now.
It’s worth mentioning that “security guards” can mean a lot of different things. A decade ago, when I started teaching, we had 45-minutes pf planning time a day that was “ours” and 45 minutes of duty time. This was awesome. Teachers would be assigned to camp out at a particular place in the halls and check passes and keep an eye on things. Because everyone had a duty period but there weren’t that many duty stations, principals could assign teachers to other tasks–there was basically a pool of competent people that could be called on for special projects or whatever. But then the powers that be basically said “Why are we letting teachers spend their valuable time doing something so simple?” and they gave us all an extra class and contracted out security. And security here doesn’t mean “Armed guards”: it means “Shmucks that can pass a background check and will take a job that pays $10/hour and dissolves three months out of the year”.
It’s never worked well: they don’t contribute to security–either they are scared of the kids, or they scare the kids, or they buddy up with the kids: they don’t have the dynamics of a classroomm–“I’m not your friend, but I’m prone to like you, basically”–to fall back on. There is a rotating door, so they don’t know the kids. They don’t know what is going on in the school. And they just aren’t very good: you get what you pay for. And we lost all the efforts of people who did other special projects in that time: it’s vastly more difficult to find people to sponsor clubs, take on extracurriculars, etc. And all kinds of really technical things–data analysis and such–just don’t get done. Finally, classroom teaching suffered, because while duty was work, it was different work, and even though classroom size stayed the same, going from 150 to 180 kids really changes what you are willing and able to do for each kid: fewer essays, less careful grading, etc. More teachers moved to three preps (different subjects) because they were teaching more, and that really causes them all to suffer.
So if they had done all that–basically, they fired us teachers as security to save money–to give us more art and music, I wouldn’t have thought it was worth it. Truly. The loss was one I am not sure we’ve ever recovered from. But they did it to fire a bunch of people, in any case.
You can’t force people to learn some thing they don’t like .
If they like art and music they will do well in it and show up for class .If you force them to take math and science they will do bad and bad school attendance .
I taught in inner city brookyln and when kids like you…they love you! When they don’t like you…get out. I agree that raising expectations is vital.
You mean you never took a course you didn’t like? A good teacher can inspire and make learning fun.
In particular, I remember a classmate who was absolutely insufferable throughout elementary and middle school. He had 2 friends, and they were all he had. He didn’t shower much, would hiss at people who tried to talk to him, and all the girls universally agreed he was a loser. In high school, he joined theatre and turned out to be a really REALLY good actor and singer. After being cast as John the Baptist in Godspell, all the theatre people wanted to be his friend. His social circle opened way up, and he ended up being a really cool guy. Because he felt confident in one area, he was able to carry that confidence into the rest of his life. And now he’s married, expecting a baby, employed… in essence, he became a functional member of society instead of a socially-crippled shut-in. If we hadn’t had a theatre program, I shudder to think where he’d be now.
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My claim to fame is teaching jay z who has given me my fifteen minutes. He was a quiet glum kid, who says I turned his life around and gave him his love for words. I spoke to him and asked if I used bitch and ho when I taught. He has been really sweet.
Grown ups too, I’ve had projects where 90% of the “training” part consisted of convincing people that yes they could. Once I had that done, the actual explanations went swimmingly.
This seems incredibly intuitive to me. I think very few kids are having behavioral problems because they’re inherently dangerous or whatever, I think most of them are caused by improper, or likely a complete lack of, proper motivation. Speaking from my own experience, I was a discipline nightmare for a number of my teachers through public schools, but I realized later that it was just because I was bored out of my mind and not interested in what was going on in class. Once I got into more challenging material and covered topics I enjoyed more, I was better off.
The approach in the article approaches this problem in two ways. First, it gives kids topics that they’re likely interested in. The arts are something that interest most kids, certainly more so that math, science, and history. I think the arts are every bit as important a part of our education as those other subjects because they help us to learn to think creatively and have an appreciation for those things. Moreso, they work together, like learning about the music and arts of the renaissance while studying the period history class. Getting that perspective will only help to engage kids more in those other subjects that just seem dry and boring. So, motivating and seizing the interest of kids will help enormously with their behavior and academic performance.
And also, removing security guards is probably just about as important. Kids will react strongly to their environment, and treating them like they’re in prison, making them feel forced to learn, and they’ll resist. Giving them a level of trust and freedom will help encourage open minds. With security guards, the teacher is just a symbol of authority making kids memorize things, but when kids can relate to a teacher as a source of knowledge, it will fundamentally change the relationship and they’ll be more receptive to learning.
Sure, there’s going to be some problem children who have no interest in learning, but I suspect they’re quite rare and, even then, probably have other complicating factors rather than just a lack of the innate desire to learn. Either way, I really hope that this helps to reverse the trend of higher security and dropping the arts from education and is a sign that we’ll be giving kids more freedom and a greater breadth of knowledge.
I wrote a book for teachers and as a result I keynote to thousands of teachers. I believe teaching is a talent and some people don’t belong in a classroom. I am also the odd one who doesn’t believe in tenure, but instead should pay more to attract the best and brightest.
I had a reader call me because she couldn’t handle her class. She referred to them as “animals” over and over. I told her she doesn’t belong on a classroom and should get a job with a veterinarian