Blog 16

Naysayer paragraph

The idea that education should reach into including the arts into our schools curriculum is favored by many, but many also disagree, especially the board of education. Back in my home town of Fairfield, Connecticut, there have been many budget cuts in the funding for many of the offered art and music programs. They even threatened to take away choir and the instrumental classes. The school boards are required to follow the Common Core Standards; in these standards it says nothing about the arts program in it, making the art department the first thing to go when money gets tight. The Common Core standards also have a scoring process which determines budgeting, the schools will cut art classes to make their scores higher to get the most of the budget. These schools also take into consideration the No Child Left Behind Act of 2015. This act states that children must be tested between the grades of 3 to 8 and once in high school to make sure they are keeping up with the rest of the class. President Bush put the original act into effect in 2001, right after 9/11, stating, “The new law reflects a remarkable consensus-first articulated in the President’s No Child Left Behind framework-on how to improve the performance of America’s elementary and secondary schools while at the same time ensuring that no child is trapped in a failing school.” This act would help so many children get the correct structure in the sense that they can walk out of high school with necessary knowledge. But since these tests only test reading writing and math, schools tend to cut arts out of the children’s schedule if they are falling behind. leaving kids walking out of high school without a well rounded education. The arts evoke creativity and thinking outside of the box. I don’t want our next generations of children to walk out of high school missing that opportunity, do you?

“Executive Summary of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.” Home, US Department of Education (ED), 20 Nov. 2007, www2.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/execsumm.html.