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How To Get your Child A Fine Art Education if Your School Has Art Budget Cuts.

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Published: 22Apr2008
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Everyone knows that when a state's school system has budget issues the arts are the first to go.

What is not broadly known is the impact of dismissing art from the lives of our children.

'Champions of Change, the Impact of the Arts on Learning' is the most comprehensive study on the subject of students involvement in the fine arts and how it relates to academic success.

The study - based on a wide range of students across America - makes an incredibly strong case that students achieve academic success more frequently and in higher numbers when they are involved with the fine arts.

Per the study;

- 82.6% of 8th graders earned mostly As and Bs who were involved heavily in fine arts versus 67.2% earning As and Bs who were not.

- 30.07% of the respondents who participate in fine arts performs community service where only 6.28% of the respondents who do not participate in fine arts perform community service.

- Students who are not heavily involved in fine arts have more than double the chance of dropping out of school by the 10th grade.

- 56.64% of the respondents who participate in fine arts read for pleasure where only 34.62% of the respondents who do not participate in fine arts read for pleasure.

These are just some of the findings in the particular study.

Fine arts help teach students far more than how to draw roses in a vase, or how to play the violin.

They help stimulate the creative part of the child's mind, teach discipline, instill a sense of pride, accomplishment, and self-worth.

These attributes not only help students do better academically, but do better in their adult life, with their career, their new family, their emotional well being.

So what do you do if your child's school has had major cuts in their art program?

Your first option is, of course, private lessons. There are pros and cons that you should be aware of when going this route.

Lets look at the pros first.

First, due to budget cuts and pressure for schools to ensure their students score well on standardized testing (oddly enough the students who are involved in the arts score better on average) the arts get less attention that other subjects in school. Thus the quality of instruction suffers.

Meaning your child has an excellent chance of getting better fine art instruction in a professional fine art instruction environment. The classes are smaller, sometimes even one on one. The instructor only has to teach that particular art form.

The other pro to going outside of your school for fine art education is that your child's success is intimately tied into the instructors income.

A public school teacher who has half of their art class receive failing grades will still be paid the same at the end of the week.

The equivalent in the private art instruction world would mean a bankrupt business in a very short order.

Private art instruction is a business, they have to deliver a good product or they will not be around for any length of time.

The major con to private lessons is of course if you cannot afford them for your child.

Private lessons cost money. Knowing the benefits of a child being educated in the fine arts, I would happily drive a less luxurious car, or eat out less often to ensure their fine art education.

However this may not be an option if, say you are a single parent, and there is too much month left after the end of your money.

To wrap up this point, private lessons are great, often better than what is provided even in schools that have ample art and music budgets.

However alternative means may be needed if you cannot afford them.

There are things that you can do to help your local school raise money for their art programs.

First and foremost is fund raising. This can be gone about in a variety of ways.

For example in my high school in Burbank California a parent spoke to executives at NBC studios. Two months later NBC donated professional video and editing equipment to our school. Everything for the fine art of film making was at our school.

It may take a bit of creative thinking and a lot of leg work, but your local businesses or local celebrities could be a fantastic funding source for your school. In return they get good PR.

There are the more traditional fund raising events, bake sales, car washes, yard sales, and gaining popularity, the auction.

The real make break point for the above types of fund raisers is having the right person in-charge to ensure that all the details are taken care of and everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing.

If no one shows up to the car wash because no one knew about it, it won't do anyone much good. Nor will the one pan of brownies at the bake sale.

Organize and communicate.

I know a good amount of people. More pertinently I know people who know more people than I could ever hope to know.

When faced with the problem of "our schools classical music program desperately needs instruments" can seem an insurmountable problem to solve by yourself.

However when you have a network of hundreds of concerned people it looks more like this.

An email/phone call/mailer goes to your network about the problem.

Everyone looks in their home and asks people they know for donations of spare instruments (I actually donated a very nice classical guitar to a school last year).

Perhaps you find a few instruments in great condition that have been sitting in closets and garages untouched for 20 years.

You now invite your network and everyone your network knows to a bowling night fund raiser. You make $20 for everyone who shows up. 50 people show. There is a $1000 right there for new instruments.

Next week you get local businesses and people in your network to donate items of value for an auction. You get kids to pass out fliers and put up posters around town, put up announcements in craigslist, your local paper, and of course make sure everyone in your network knows and that they are telling everyone else.

The auction is a success raising $3,000.

When you have enough money for the instruments have the kids study hard and put on a fund raiser concert, charge $10 and put the money aside. Somehow someone will manage to lose a tuba.

As you can see, a group can be a powerful thing in regards to getting things done.

What happens if your school is so strapped for cash and so over crowded that they cannot afford the fine art teacher let alone the space for art classes?

And what if there are no reputable private fine art instruction schools local, or you cannot afford them at this time?

At this point you have to take matters entirely in your own hands. However you are not entirely alone!

There are products on the market, that for a low cost, can still help educate your child in the fine arts.

Here is an example, for a onetime payment of $30 you can have you child take online violin lessons with Violin Master Pros.

There are also online lessons and DVD instruction programs for other musical instruments, writing, drawing, and more.

Any will be far more productive than another evening of video games or cable TV.

Beware of asking uncle John - who plays the piano - to teach your child. Just because one knows how to do something does not mean they know how to teach it!

Bad lessons can very quickly turn your child off to the arts. Even if your school all of a sudden receives a huge grant for their art program it won't do much good if your child is stale on art.

All in all our societies viewpoint must be changed in regards to how important the arts are to our children and our future.

It is a proven fact that children do better in standardized testing when involved in the fine arts. Yet many schools will cut art and music to focus on getting better scoring results!

A tiny portion of our defense budget would easily fund art and music in our schools nationwide.

Many parents have the viewpoint, 'if it is not reading or arithmetic then what real use is it my child'?

Yet in the top science schools in America all have a extensive fine art programs in their universities for a reason. It helps students perform academically!

It is our job as parents, budget cuts or no budget cuts, to ensure that our children receive the fine art education that they need.

If we don't do it for our children, who is going to?

Eric Hines has worked in the field of art for over a decade as a musician, art dealer and is currently employed by Mission Renaissance, the world's largest drawing and painting instruction program in the world. He is currently taking art classes to learn to draw and paint, very soon he will be selling his own art work and not just the works of others.

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