There was a great
article in
Edutopia recently about trends in education.
One trend that was highlighted is the move away from arts education in schools, due partly to the rigors of the
No Child Left Behind law. At the same time, though, arts education is being seen more and more, by parents
and educators, as a crucial part of education and achievement.
(Statistics
here, for those who want more info about arts education's impact).
The resulting demand for arts education, coupled with the lack of school time for arts, means that community-based organizations like Streetside are being called on more and more to provide arts programs. That often happens after school, or
during school, when teaching artists make the arts part of subjects like language arts and social studies.
In San Francisco,
The San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Families has been at the forefront of this trend. They've begun supporting the arts after school, giving new grants to many of San Francisco's finest arts providers, like
826 Valencia,
Cellspace, and
Performing Arts Workshop, not to mention Streetside.
For Streetside, the increased interest in the arts after school means that we are
offering after school programming to over 400 students this year--so
far. Our schedule of after school workshops used to be a couple of pages long. Now it's 11 pages long. Just today, three new staff people came in, reporting back excitedly about their new groups, who were choosing blog names and playing theater games.
Labels: 826 Valencia, afterschool programs, Arts education, Edutopia, No Child Left Behind, Performing Arts Workshop, Streetside Stories
