Today Streetside's Executive Director, Linda Johnson, taped a segment for the radio show
Quake Conversations. Tune in to learn more about our work!
You can catch it on Sunday, March 25th on a few different stations:
KNEW, 910AM, 6:30 AM
KKSF, 103.7 FM, 7:00 AM
The Quake, 960AM, at 12:30 PM
Star 101.3 FM, 11:00 PM
All too often youth are seen as the cause of societal problems like drugs and violence. But when youth get a chance to tell their own stories, we've found that perception and reality are very different. As one of our Streetside Teaching Artists says: "If you don't tell your own story, someone else will tell it for you."
This San Francisco Chronicle
column addresses the suspiciously high
arrest rate among African-Americans in San Francisco. The article talks about how unevenly justice is applied in this famously openminded city. And in the process, it debunks a common
myth--that crimes committed by youth are increasing. The crime rate among youth in San Francisco has actually dropped sharply--and teen pregnancy and dropout rates have fallen too. Our youth are, more and more, making safe and responsible choices. Oddly, it's middle-aged people who are being arrested more often. As the author, Michael Males writes:
Even after a generation of dramatic changes, today's law-enforcement authorities, with their thinking stuck in decades past, perceive of crime and drugs as "youth crises." So they continue to blame young people -- who comprise small and diminishing fractions of the city's arrests. This backward thinking prevents formulation of innovative policies that match the trends.
We notice the choices of San Francisco youth as we help them write their stories. All too often, youth write about the fear of becoming a victim of crime. They talk about their desire to avoid bad choices, and to contribute to their communities. Alot of the time, they're thinking about the things we hope they would be thinking about: homework vs. Playstation, a trip to an amusement park, family, making new friends...
Jennifer Ling wrote about finding a friend smoking:
"I saw Big C smoking a cigarette. I felt myself having pressure like two giraffes just jumped on me. I quickly ran outside the slimy bathroom. Then she came out looking shocked."
Ry'Ann Alana Richardson wrote about dong community service:
"At the senior center, I worked for two hours playing games like checkers and cards with the seniors while they told me folktales, or tales of their lives as children."
Yandy Padilla shared a story about a family member in Honduras who joined a gang:
"I think about the choices that my cousin has made. I don't want to make the same choices. As a gang member, he gets into trouble and gets into fights. He runs away from the cops and uses drugs. But I want to do well in life and school. Some people ask me to do drugs, but I say no because that is bad for me."
It's so important that we hear the voices of our young people straight from the source. Youth have lots of
stories to tell, and Streetside gives them a platform to make their voices heard.
March is
Arts Education Month!
Streetsiders celebrated by attending a fantastic
symposium put on by the Alameda County Office of Education's
Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership. The efforts of
Louise Music and her crew to bring arts education to every school, every child, every day are a model that should be followed nationwide. They manage to make everyone--students, parents, schools, arts providers--feel included and ready to take on the challenges of changing our educational system.
The Alliance brought David Perkins and Lois Hetland, two architects of the
Teaching For Understanding framework. TFU, as it's often called, is a brilliantly simple way for educators to build lessons that truly engage youth, and help them develop a deep understanding. Streetside uses TFU in our collaboration with
KIPP Schools, and we're always eager to learn more.
Labels: Arts education, Arts Education Month, Project Zero, Streetside Stories, Teaching For Understanding
A new study,
An Unfinished Canvas, is showing that only 11% of schools statewide meet state goals for arts education. The report can be downloaded
here.
The
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and SRI International conducted the study. According to the study:
*29% of California schools do not offer a standards-based course of study in any of the four arts disciplines—music, visual arts, theatre, and dance.
*89% of California schools fail to offer a standards-based course of study in all four disciplines, falling short of state goals.
*61% of schools do not have even one full-time equivalent arts specialist.
*Standards alignment, assessment, and accountability practices are uneven in arts education, and often not present at all.
*California students lag behind the national average in hours of arts instruction—up to 50% less in music and visual arts instruction at the elementary level.
As we've
blogged about before, research has shown Streetside's amazing results when working with students. Our programs increase test scores, help students engage in school, and build community. But students need much more than any one program or teacher can offer. They need arts to be woven into their school experience, and to receive arts experiences that build on each other.
We look forward to the impact this study can have at building arts opportunities for students statewide.
Press coverage of the study can be found
here.
In local news, the San Francisco Examiner ran an
update about how the San Francisco Unified School District is working to integrate arts into schools through the
Arts Education Master Plan. Go SFUSD!
Labels: Arts education, Arts Education Master Plan, arts instruction, arts standards, San Francisco Unified School District, Streetside Stories
