Recently in these pages we have been developing a Guide to School Assemblies. Today we will look at shows and field trips featuring Fine Arts programs.
The age old argument in education revolves around the question of what to teach and how to teach it. What is most important? Is Math more important than writing? Is it useful to teach Latin anymore? What proportion of time and assets should be devoted to core subjects? And what is defined as a core subject? Is art necessary? Or Music? Or sports? All these questions are routinely mulled over by people interested in education. And the answers they come up with are mostly conditioned by their own subjective likes and dislikes. Ask a coach if sports are important? Then ask a music teacher whose program is about to be cut due to funding issues if he or she thinks that sports is important. You may not get the same answer.
In fact, in this country at this very minute, as our leaders wrestle with preparing our kids to compete globally, these issues continue to boil over in discussions of Common Core standards.
But just as districts and superintendents face these hard questions, so do parents and teachers face very similar questions when approaching the comparatively much easier questions of which school assemblies to schedule, and how best to allocate resources for school enrichment.
Among the many ways in which school shows and assemblies can be implemented to help educate our kids, there is the whole category of Fine Arts. In many places, schools themselves offer wonderful art and music instruction. But in other places district funding shortages have led to cutbacks which often eliminate the arts partially or even totally. It is not our position to criticize decisions made by any district leadership. But we do bemoan the loss of this instruction. The arts are, in our view, an essential piece of the education of a well rounded individual, who will be ready to take a productive and intelligent place in the modern world. And even in localities where such cuts have not taken place, exposure to professional abilities in the arts is also an extremely valuable facet of a good education, especially in areas where students, following their school days, are unlikely to find many opportunities to learn about or enjoy the finer arts.
Thankfully, the realm of school assemblies offers many possibilities for exposing students to fine art.
If you are fortunate and live in an urban or suburban area of a larger city, you will likely find that field trips to visit museums, the ballet, the opera or theatre are many and varied. And, in many cases, these same organizations have company members who are able to visit schools and demonstrate their art in your own gym or multi-purpose room. Children's Theatre Companies frequently are set up to tour with multi member cast plays designed specifically to appeal to young people.
Of course, the larger the group traveling to your school the higher will be the overhead for that group to make such a trip financially feasible. More performers generally means a higher price. Now, in some cases, funding for these programs may be provided by donors to the organizations themselves, while in other cases it is not. Schools wishing to host an opera company or a touring museum exhibition may or may not be able to obtain grants to cover the cost. But, one thing is certain. The base cost of the program will be higher according to the number of performers involved, regardless of who is picking up the tab.
These visits, bringing Fine Art right into the school, are wonderful opportunities for kids to experience art at it's best.
But at a lower level, there are also artists who travel independently and as such may be more cost effective (may be, but are not always). Illustrators of books are a common example in this area. But then a visit from a professional classical Mime comes close to approximating a dance program but at, thankfully, a much lower price. Local artists may also be found occasionally who are actually willing to volunteer their services.
The key is to make exploration of these opportunities a part of your research. Good opportunities are out there for most schools. You and your team can discover them. But then you must also return to the same dilemma faced by the superintendents. Art or Science? Reading or Dance? Music or Sports? Good luck with that one!
Geoff Beauchamp is the Regional Manager of Mobile Ed Productions where "Education Through Entertainment" has been the guiding principal since 1979. Mobile Ed Productions produces and markets quality educational school assembly programs in the fields of science, history, writing, astronomy, natural science, mathematics, character issues and a variety of other curriculum based areas. In addition, Mr. Beauchamp is a professional actor with 30 years of experience in film, television and on stage. He created and still performs occasionally in Mobile Ed's THE LIVING LINCOLN. He also spent ten years coordinating assembly programs for the elementary school where his own children went to school.