In November 2010, I visited Harrison District 2, a low-income, largely Latino school district in Colorado Springs. As part of a plan to evaluate and pay all teachers according to how well they "grow" student achievement, the district had just rolled out its first-ever testing program in the visual arts,...
I love technology. Having said that, at least at the elementary level I don't feel that it is a priority at all. At least nowhere where I have had the pleasure to work in. It is a gimmicky thing that people use mainly as a communication tool, with little incorporation to the curriculum in place, and most definitely not used for the creation of new content by students.
Loved the video Lupita. This weekend I was just talking about that with a close friend of mine. We both got into programming when we were very little but somehow didn't have the parental support at the time to continue on that path. At the time I could get some things done in BASIC and even PASCAL. I was mentioning to my friend that it is extremely important for kids to "get their hands dirty" with technology so that they can understand the mechanics and in the process become better users of the technology for programming and non-programming purposes.
Is it an insult to the 'fun nature' of the arts?
Or
Is it a way to validate the importance of the arts in our schools?