What Kind of Society Cuts the Arts? Help us Get Supplies!
My students need to have the materials to create art via sculpting, sketching with charcoal, and using watercolors.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Pace's classroom raised $328
This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My Students
Do you remember art being only crayons, construction paper, scissors and glue, with an occasional foray into tempera paints or watercolors? Well, things haven't changed much, because that's pretty much all my school has available for kids to use as they learn the elements of art.
My students are all low income, second language learners, going to school in the inner city where opportunities are few and far between.
Crushed by the culture of poverty and all that it doesn't offer, coupled with our current education culture of everything being about test scores, my students spend 90% of their week learning Language Arts and Math. We have turned around the notion of an education so far that our district just recently announced the CLOSURE of the entire Arts Branch! Clearly, the message that art is not important is being sent out loud and clear.
But you can't crush a kid's spirit and desire to create. My students long to explore all areas of art but we are handcuffed by the limited materials offered in a typical inner city elementary school.
My Project
I am trained in the arts and can give my students great experiences, but I need the tools. I remember carving things out of balsa wood as a kid and how amazed I was to create something from a block of wood. Now they have balsa FOAM available...so soft that you can use almost anything to shape it and not have to worry about using sharp knives and other unsafe tools. I want my kids to have those same awesome moments as they make something out of nothing.
I also remember how exciting it was to draw something that looked 3D because I had learned to shade with charcoal. That led me to explore still lifes, landscapes, and portraits and it made me better as an artist, and more aware of art in general. Experiences like these formed me into an artistic person on many levels. I want that feeling of creation and artistic beauty to find its way into my students. That just doesn't happen without experience and exposure. I want them to leave 4th grade with some real art experiences!
Nothing on this planet can ever replace experience nor a good foundation.
Our society will be severely lacking in the future if we continue to discount the arts education. What kind of imbalanced society will we be? What will we leave behind for the generations after us if we don't educate and expose our kids to the arts? I don't mean to be overly dramatic, but with all the obstacles my students already face, something as seemingly small as art supplies can have a truly life changing effect.
Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Pace and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
