Restore Academic Programs

By Susan Elliott

Physical education, art, band, choir and drama classes have been cut from the elementary schools. Restore them. We've lost most of our P.E. teachers. Many of our schools are not in compliance with the Education Code which mandates that students have instruction in physical education for 200 minutes each ten school days.

Art is no longer a separate class, but is now included within existing coursework. Draw a picture. Color the sun yellow. What happened to multi-media experiences in clay, watercolors, paper mache, ink, and more? The PTAs at many of our schools are bringing back the arts by funding programs like Meet the Masters and hosting the annual Reflections Program.

Music and drama are missing too, unless a volunteer runs the program after school. If we don't have the money, we need volunteers and benefactors. We need to form partnerships with the business community to assist us with funding and support. We also need to look into what grants may be available from varying resources like the National Endowment of the Arts or Save the Music. Research shows that students achieve at a higher level when they are engaged in the four "R's" (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic and the aRts).