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 Start the Art Week: Advocate for the Arts!
PTA Start the Art Week
Embrace the Arts! | Celebrate the Arts! | Advocate for the Arts!
Arts education not only cultivates imagination, self-expression, and creativity, but also plays a vital role in the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It promotes visual literacy, which enables students to analyze and interpret the meaning of complex visual imagery that permeates the media and popular culture.
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supports
PTA Start the Art Week
| In addition, the arts provide a point of departure for learning in other disciplines, including social studies, history, literature, science, and math. Research has shown that “arts education increases interest in academic learning, cognitive and basic skills development, and the development of academic achievement skills” (R.R. Konrad, Empathy, Arts, and Social Studies, 2000). Arts education presents a window through which students are exposed to a diverse and dynamic world of perspectives and cultures. And, among these many other benefits, arts education equips students with skills essential to success in the current economic environment.
Despite these findings and despite the fact that the arts are included as one of the “core academic subjects” in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), in many schools faced with budget cuts, arts programs are all too often the first to go. Schools that provide little or no arts education are denying students theopportunity to hone those skills that will best prepare them for the highly competitive labor market of the 21st century. Arts education is a fundamental component of comprehensive learning for grades K–12.
Parents Can Make a Difference
Parents play a vital role in the survival of sufficient arts education in schools. Collaboration among parents, teachers, and arts leaders can create a powerful constituency advocating for arts programs in schools. Parent involvement is an integral part of influencing decision makers to include arts education as part of the basic curriculum and guaranteeing the best possible education for all students.
Use PTA Start the Art Week to involve parents in keeping the arts in our schools.
- Assemble a group of parents who share the same concerns, and as a group, meet with the school principal to assess the status and quality of arts education within the curriculum.
- Encourage parents, teachers, and community members to tell the school board to provide more arts education in your school district. Provided below is a template of a letter to the school board for parents to fill out.
- Have students tell the president of the United States how much the arts mean to them. Last year, the “Dear Mr. President, Please Save the Arts!” letter-writing campaign produced nearly 2,000 letters to the president. For information about this year’s campaign, see the “Dear Mr. President, Please Save the Arts!” flier below.
- Encourage students, parents, and teachers to sign a letter to the town mayor or county executive requesting that he or she proclaim October as National Arts and Humanities Month. A sample letter, as well as a template for the proclamation, is provided below.
Keep asking for arts education throughout the year.
- Attend school board meetings and hearings to voice your support for the inclusion of arts education in schools.
- Build a network of arts advocates. Ask parents, teachers, school administrators, and community members to assist you with your efforts. There is strength in numbers.
- Urge your network of advocates to be persistent in advocating for quality arts education for every child.
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Your PTA's arts advocacy efforts can have lifelong benefits for students. |
- Provide parents with contact information for elected officials, as well as sample letters to elected officials on the topic of arts education.
- Seek guidance and support from your state arts agency and community arts leaders. (Information about your state arts agency can be found at the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies website, www.nasaa-arts.org.)
- Stay informed on arts education issues.
- Use your newsletter or bulletin board to inform the school community about legislation that would affect arts programs in your school, district, or state.
- Include arts advocacy topics in your PTA’s meeting agendas.
- Showcase students’ art throughout the year.
Help turn parents’ passion for promoting the arts and their children’s success into powerful action by equipping them with knowledge and resources as well as a coalition that will increase the impact of their individual efforts.
PTA Start the Art Week
Embrace the Arts! | Celebrate the Arts! | Advocate for the Arts!
Start the Art Week: Advocate for the Arts!PTA Start the Art Week
Embrace the Arts! | Celebrate the Arts! | Advocate for the Arts!
Arts education not only cultivates imagination, self-expression, and creativity, but also plays a vital role in the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It promotes visual literacy, which enables students to analyze and interpret the meaning of complex visual imagery that permeates the media and popular culture.
|
supports
PTA Start the Art Week
| In addition, the arts provide a point of departure for learning in other disciplines, including social studies, history, literature, science, and math. Research has shown that “arts education increases interest in academic learning, cognitive and basic skills development, and the development of academic achievement skills” (R.R. Konrad, Empathy, Arts, and Social Studies, 2000). Arts education presents a window through which students are exposed to a diverse and dynamic world of perspectives and cultures. And, among these many other benefits, arts education equips students with skills essential to success in the current economic environment.
Despite these findings and despite the fact that the arts are included as one of the “core academic subjects” in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), in many schools faced with budget cuts, arts programs are all too often the first to go. Schools that provide little or no arts education are denying students theopportunity to hone those skills that will best prepare them for the highly competitive labor market of the 21st century. Arts education is a fundamental component of comprehensive learning for grades K–12.
Parents Can Make a Difference
Parents play a vital role in the survival of sufficient arts education in schools. Collaboration among parents, teachers, and arts leaders can create a powerful constituency advocating for arts programs in schools. Parent involvement is an integral part of influencing decision makers to include arts education as part of the basic curriculum and guaranteeing the best possible education for all students.
Use PTA Start the Art Week to involve parents in keeping the arts in our schools.
- Assemble a group of parents who share the same concerns, and as a group, meet with the school principal to assess the status and quality of arts education within the curriculum.
- Encourage parents, teachers, and community members to tell the school board to provide more arts education in your school district. Provided below is a template of a letter to the school board for parents to fill out.
- Have students tell the president of the United States how much the arts mean to them. Last year, the “Dear Mr. President, Please Save the Arts!” letter-writing campaign produced nearly 2,000 letters to the president. For information about this year’s campaign, see the “Dear Mr. President, Please Save the Arts!” flier below.
- Encourage students, parents, and teachers to sign a letter to the town mayor or county executive requesting that he or she proclaim October as National Arts and Humanities Month. A sample letter, as well as a template for the proclamation, is provided below.
Keep asking for arts education throughout the year.
- Attend school board meetings and hearings to voice your support for the inclusion of arts education in schools.
- Build a network of arts advocates. Ask parents, teachers, school administrators, and community members to assist you with your efforts. There is strength in numbers.
- Urge your network of advocates to be persistent in advocating for quality arts education for every child.
|
Your PTA's arts advocacy efforts can have lifelong benefits for students. |
- Provide parents with contact information for elected officials, as well as sample letters to elected officials on the topic of arts education.
- Seek guidance and support from your state arts agency and community arts leaders. (Information about your state arts agency can be found at the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies website, www.nasaa-arts.org.)
- Stay informed on arts education issues.
- Use your newsletter or bulletin board to inform the school community about legislation that would affect arts programs in your school, district, or state.
- Include arts advocacy topics in your PTA’s meeting agendas.
- Showcase students’ art throughout the year.
Help turn parents’ passion for promoting the arts and their children’s success into powerful action by equipping them with knowledge and resources as well as a coalition that will increase the impact of their individual efforts.
PTA Start the Art Week
Embrace the Arts! | Celebrate the Arts! | Advocate for the Arts! |  |
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