Thanks, Craig. I appreciate you comments. I never meant to impugn colleges or
universities. I tried to word it so that it read the actual decision makers
which is not necessarily the Art or Art Education Department. I realize that
we are all pretty much directed by political types with no educational
backgrounds. Most of the time their hearts are in the right place. But lack
of knowledge on their part and tweaking for special interests and the whole
ball of wax means total nonsense by the time it reaches our level.
On our part by the time the ball reaches us, we are restricted by the
requirements for the "core" curriculum subjects and the special but more
important courses such as drivers' ed, SAT prep, Computer literacy, Freshman
prep, weight lifting, and the list goes on. So the end result is that we
sometimes send you students who are vitally interested who do not have the
prep that we would like for them to have. That would be because they were
college/art major bound but did not have space in their schedule of
"important for college courses" for more than Art I which is the dumping
ground for every special program in the school. Sometimes they don't get to
take that because it is filled with the behavior and emotional cases of the
school. I have a fantastic Art I class this semester and I am amazed. I
suspect that I have died and gone to heaven and don't have enough sense to
know it. :-))
I had a student graduate last year who received a scholarship and who will
major in fine arts. I never saw him until his senior year. Obviously though,
I am making headway. I am allowed to structure the Visual Arts curriculum so
that a student can get as many as 7 or 8 credits in VA if they really work at
it. And our guidance department is getting much more in step with the idea
that future art majors need to take art. But it is us working together that
is making it happen. SSSSH Don't tell the legislature.
Reatha
