• The monotony of core curriculum being the main focus of schools lowers the focus of students for core subjects.
• As art and shop classes continue being de-emphasized in schools, students miss out on the opportunity to express themselves, find new passions, hobbies and potential career paths.
  

Issue 1- Beating a dead horse

I find this old expression to be quite relevant to the first issue I see. I don't mean to say that students are like horses, but the expression refers to the point one gets to where what you are doing is not effective anymore. You can only do something so much until it loses it's effectiveness, or even begins to have negative effectiveness. Core subjects tend to be students least favorite times of the day, and having such a huge focus on them, students will lose interest and zone out quicker than when they entered your room. Here the key is quality time over quantity time. If art and shop classes were more embraced and funded, students would have a healthy breakup of the monotony, and their senses will be freshened each time they enter the class.

I think we all agree that core subjects can be dry at times, and it's hard for administration to see the value of art and shop classes, especially when they have no place in determining the funding a school receives (in the USA). While the correlation between core academic success and the presence of art/shop classes is indirect, I feel the correlation would be positive enough to merit the resurgence of these classes being more of a priority. If administration could be more convinced of this relationship, they would have an easier time maintaining funding of these important classes!

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Issue 2- Express Yourself

We are all human. We feel human things. I haven't met any robots or cyborgs yet, so they will not be considered in this issue, but why have we forgotten what it means to be human? It's hard to know what to do with these feelings sometimes, and anyone who has created anything with their hands knows how therapeutic it is! The arts teach kids how to refocus negative or destructive energies into more positive and constructive ones, and the world needs more positivity!

What did you want to be when you grew up? If you didn't take classes like wood, metal or auto shop in school, how could you know you didn't have a passion for one of these trades? You wouldn't! If it wasn't a passion that could lead you towards a very helpful hobby, it could've been a passion that led you towards your actual career! Careers in the trades aren't a big focus early on, and if they were, think of how much more adept kids would be when entering the field! I am a firm believer in a liberal education, that includes a broad range of different subjects to expose our youth to, giving them the best opportunity to find what their true passion in life is. So many kids get placed into these boxes, and it must be frustrating not always having the opportunity to see what else is out there. Besides, we could save a ton of our own money being able to do simple maintenance on our cars, and craft useful things with our wood/metalworking skills.

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Image Source. Data in image provided by The National Association of State Boards of Education

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In conclusion, I can see why there has been a de-emphasis on art and shop classes. The main reason being a lack of resources and funding for education. Everything is about money! Schools are run like businesses. If a business owner can't see a more direct relationship between something and their profits, it is hard to motivate them to invest their time and money in developing it! Given that funding for schools is based completely on standardized testing (another topic to be discussed), and said tests do not incorporate the arts or shop in any way, it is hard for administration to invest much money on these curricula.

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What do you think?

What are potential solutions to help breath life back into the arts and shop classes? Chime in below! Much love again to @eaglespirit for being the initial motivator to write these posts!

Also, if you are interested in checking out the first two blogs in this series, here you go!

Part 1: Dawn of Technology, Zombification of the Masses
Part 2: The Missing Link

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