Alan English and Craig Durrett of The Times are helping spread the word that Louisiana schools will soon increase their use of the arts in reaching students. In today's Times editorial, "Arts in schools offer more than make-believe," you can see the figures that have been tallied in using the arts to reach at-risk students.
The new program will come into existence because of leadership by Senator Sharon Weston Broome, a veteran legislator from East Baton Rouge Parish.
Act 175 is not a radical revision. It simply provides that, " By 2010-11, all public school students in kindergarten through eighth grade will have an hour of visual-arts and an hour of performing-arts instruction each week. In addition, all public high schools will provide instruction in the visual and performing arts."
We join English and Durrett in shouting out to motivated school leaders. There's a cornucopia of evidence that the arts as a strategy enhances achievement across the board.
Maybe each teacher in this region would like to try to add one additional art-based activity to the week's school work in the new semester?
2 comments:
For a broader look at the legislature and cultural intitatives, see the La Culture, Rec & Tourism site.
This has been passed , but not funded as yet. The new administration will have a big hand in bringing the bill to fruition. We all need to make ourselves heard on this from the get go on inauguration day.
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