The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Group works to put art back in schools

By Katherine Petersen

Mar Junge learned about music, drawing and drama when she attended school. As a parent of three students at Fairwood Elementary School in Sunnyvale, she would like to see her children have the same opportunities.

"Taking the arts away from children is critical," she said. "Studies have shown that early exposure to musical training is a benefit throughout a child's school years as far as their being able to understand and process information, especially when it comes to math."

Drama helps children express feelings and gives them confidence to be able to speak publicly, she said.

"Education is not complete without all these things," she added.

Junge is not alone in her feeling that art should be more predominant in local schools. Fremont High School principal Pete Tuana, teachers and local artists hope to have a grant proposal completed by January to enhance the arts in grades K-12. While plans are still in the preliminary stages, Alice Freund, the project's coordinator, has held four meetings over the past few months to discuss schools' needs and how to approcach bringing more of the arts back into education.

"The kinesthetic value of learning through the arts is as valuable as learning math," Tuana said. "We need to give kids of all ages the opportunity."

Parents have expressed the need to redress the issue of the arts in schools, said Freund. "The arts are an integral part of education. They enhance the development of the whole child."

In recent years, school districts had to make difficult decisions, and many arts programs, such as instrumental music in elementary school, fell by the wayside, Junge said. Consequently, many high school bands and orchestras have fewer members because student generally have to pay for private lessons out of pocket.

While the arts do exist to a certain degree in school curriculums, they aren't given as much weight as science, reading and math, said Nancy Steward, superintendent of arts and youth services for the city of Sunnyvale. Many studies show that the arts can help students with creative thinking, problem-solving and working as part of a team, she added.

Steward helped create a program at Cherry Chase Elementary School called Stretchers, which lengthens the students' day and exposes them to the arts. Yes! Express, a city-sponsored after-school program, also incorporates arts activities into its programming. Students must pay to participate in Yes! Express, while Stretchers is funded by the school's PTA, Steward said.

But many parents can't afford to send their kids to Yes! Express or give them private music or art lessons, and Tuana feels that these children shouldn't be excluded.

Freund, who is a professional portrait artist with a master's degree in art, stresses the importance of figuring out what is manageable before jumping into the project.

"We'd like to say we're going to take each arts discipline and move forward. I think we can do that, but not all at once," she said.

One idea that came out of a number of brainstorming sessions was having students and professional volunteers produce a video of arts activities from preschool to high school.

"The video could be used as an advocacy tool," Freund said. "Some activities would be art for art's sake, while others enhance other academic subjects." Such a video would not impose more work on already overextended teachers, Freund added. Freund teaches art privately and at De Anza College.

Another idea is to connect schools with community arts resources, Freund said. For example, a school might be able to borrow costumes from a theater company. And, in return, parents might be able to make any repairs to them.

Mike Slavens, who joined Freund's team, hadn't realized that arts programs had been cut from many school budgets. As president of the Sunnyvale Photography Club and a teacher at the high school district's adult education program, he recognizes the importance of arts to a full education.

"I've never considered art a frill, but apparently others have," he said. "You don't need to be a musician to appreciate music. Learning photography can involved other disciplines, such as chemistry and physics."

Art plays an important role in almost any subject, he said. "If you ask kids about dinosaurs, the first thing they want to do is draw you a picture," he said. "Pictures can bring many subjects like history to life for children."

Freund agrees that art can enhance education and recognizes that valuable programs like Yes! Express exist and that teachers work hard to include them where they can, but feels more can be done.

"There's been a groundswell of interest starting in the state," she said. "We hear grassroots interest from parents. We want to see that existing resources are utilized to bring the community and the schools together."

Freund hopes to see a grant proposal by January 1998, but doesn't have a firm timeline in mind.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 16, 1997.
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