It's a powerful read.
My principal hugged me yesterday as I left school after hours. It was a deep hug of regret and understanding. She does not want me to go, although it has become clear that I will be going, and no longer be under her watchful and guiding eye. She does not choose to let me go, nor does she choose to keep putting papers in my mailbox that say, "RIF teacher" and "Displaced". She won't have to after June. After June, my ten year relationship with Canterbury will end. I began as a theatre teacher, and when I became a credentialed classroom teacher, I continued to volunteer with the theatre program while teaching full time and raising my own children. I have ELD 2-5 students in my program and children receiving RSP services as well as parent volunteers with limited English and fluent English. We all act, paint, build sets and celebrate Canterbury Elementary School's community together by putting on original plays.
The art teacher at Canterbury does not want me to go either, because I integrate art lessons into my classroom. I use clay and glaze to teach chemistry, geology and botany to kindergardeners. I teach setting, character and story structure using water colors. Many teachers at my school do this. They are willing to be trained and absorb the new. They know that it is through training in the arts and teaching through art that tolerance, good character, problem solving and higher level thinking are instilled in children. If our society wants scientists and mathematicians who think out of the box and keep us competitive with other countries, then infusing arts instruction into our schools is more vital than ever. Eliminating all formal art instruction and professional development destroys the chance for this generation of children and youth to develop into the kind of inventive thinkers that will help our society achieve. I have two children in LAUSD being directly affected by this trend. Through the years I have noticed that the science and math teachers with a wide scope of life experiences and artistic interests and training have engaged my own children much more fully than the teachers who have a narrow scope of their subject and their students. My arts training began as a toddler and continued throughout my entire life, and I am a better elementary school teacher because of it. It gave me the multicultural outlook I have today.
I should be teaching next year at Canterbury Avenue Elementary School. The principal, the parents and the students want me to stay. What a world you have created at LAUSD where the participants have little voice. I can sense the learned helplessness in these children as it dawns upon them that the quality and well being of the staff that teaches them matters not to those in charge. They understand now exactly how your bureaucracy and society view them and it is an understanding that comes with insecurity and dread for the coming year.
Cooperate, collaborate, create!