My "Arts" Beliefs...

My belief in the arts being a component of children's learning experiences is not anything new.
As I was looking through old facebook pictures, I came across one when I was the Youth Program Director at the YMCA in West Philly! (Yup, I was born and raised in West Philly---and Southwest---52nd Street corridor)

I was responsible for nearly all youth programming at the branch and was always looking to improve upon the quality of our programs. I loved my team of youth program staff and volunteers and the majority of them loved "Mr. Steve" right back!

You'll notice the book I circled in the picture. With our leadership and with a great core of young arts teachers (high school students who I hired from CAPA in South Philly) we put together a PHENOMENAL dance program and a budding drama program!! At one point we had more than 100 girls enrolled in any one or more of our dance classes in two studios at the Y!

We had big productions throughout the year that would coincide with hat/glove drives and would also bring news crews. One year, we chose to take our end of the year performance at one of theaters at the Annenberg Center on Penn's campus!!!

The School District of Philadelphia, City Hall, and Harrisburg must do more increase the arts experiences of the students in Philadelphia, something that is as basic and expected in many of our wealthier suburban school districts. Many of our students have creative minds and abilities and are stifled because of the dearth of arts programs in our schools. Many teachers try to fill the void as best we can, but I will humbly admit my limitations!!

Click the link to find out what I did this past week for a kid who is always drawing in class!

We have GOT to do better!

Looks like my kids and I will be writing letters and sending some emails! It's not enough to just complain. Stay tuned!

P.S. I remember one critique from one of my principals was that I do too much "arts stuff" for Social Studies and not enough reading, lol (I actually did do quite a bit of reading with them--and it was good too, but every time there was a visit it seemed to be during our singing/rapping segments)