An April article in US News and World Report made an impressive case for why public schools must maintain strong programming in what otherwise are known as the “extracurriculars.” Taken broadly, “extra” curriculars include all subjects taught in school beyond the state-mandated academic areas of reading and literacy, mathematics, science and social studies, especially history, government and economics.
Harvard University President Drew Faust thinks that the extracurriculars are very important. She speaks of how a study of the humanities teaches students to “think critically and communicate their ideas clearly, and those transferrable skills lead to rewarding lives and careers in every field of endeavor.” The humanities include art and music and foreign languages and the subjects that explain the history of mankind. They are what often comprises a liberal arts education.
http://harvardmagazine.com/2014/03/see-compare-reason-decide
A Concordia University study indicates that “musical training, in particular instrumental training, produces long lasting changes in motor abilities and brain structure.” Children who start very young receive the greatest benefits.
Learning a foreign language not only provides a person with access to communication and a world of experience in a new culture, but the act of learning a second language causes the cortex of the brain literally expand and this expansion allows the learner a greater acuity of thought, abstract consciousness, and a more expansive memory.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22750568
“Children who get aerobic exercise transform their brains due to a protein that is elevated during exercise.” “Exercise improves circulation, lowers blood pressure and reduces the risk of developing osteoporosis. It strengthens muscles, reduces obesity, improves mobility and lessens the risk of depression.
http://johnratey.typepad.com/blog/2008/03/miracle-gro-for.html
Although these examples, the humanities, arts, music, foreign languages and physical education, seem to be familiar subjects offered in many schools, add these to the list of mandated academic subjects and then view all of the variations on what may be perceived as baseline school programming.
Pragmatically, “must” programming is programming that is measured. That means tested. Federal and state mandates require school districts to assess the learning achievement of all children in reading and mathematics. Applying the adage, “what gets tested gets taught,” reading and math are baseline for all schools. But, wait. Neither of these two subjects represents a single, linear line of instruction.
Beginning in middle schools, math is not a single subject but a ladder comprised of Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus with layers of each, such as Beginning Algebra, Intermediate Algebra, Advanced Algebra, and Second-year Algebra. Do this expansion for each English, composition, literature, life science, physical science, Earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, and astronomy course and a conception of the usual school subjects moves from a narrow list to a dense smorgasbord of subjects. And, this doesn’t include the landscape of social science subjects. Nor, does it include the variations of Advanced Placement and special education courses. And, every one of these subjects with its course variations is surrounded by children, parents and community members who believe that their favorite subject is “most important.”
Without much effort, one can find “who says” testimony and evidence for why a very wide array of topics and experiences should be provided by a local public school. Many are extrapolations of traditional skill sets with contemporary applications. Other topics meet a perception for future employment skills. And, other topics answer current economic and political complaints and concerns.
The Huffington Post offers these:
- Taxes
- Budgeting and Finance
- Computer coding
- Emergency medical training
- No-bull*** sex education
- Cover letters and resumes
- Sustainable living
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/13/things-schools-should-teach_n_4576389.html
Everything that is curricular and extracurricular is important. But, it does not end there. Everything that is co-curricular also is important. For example, just try to reduce a co-curricular activity to find out how important it is.
The Hermantown (MN) school board faces a $260,000 budgetary for 2014-15. After several years of budget cutting and keeping cuts as removed from classroom instruction as possible, the board approved a reduced budget including two elementary teaching positions and high school cheerleading.
“Two weeks after eliminating funding for cheerleading – a move that led to community outcry and surprise – the Hermantown School Board voted to reinstate money for the program Monday night. A crowd of often emotional supporters packing the small boardroom lined the wall and sat on the floor to both hear and speak about the activity.” “’The students put in a lot of work in the last weeks to save their program,’ said junior Courtney Martin. ‘It’s the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life knowing I get to cheer another year,’ she said.”
Every school subject and every activity is important to someone!
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/content/hermantown-school-board-reverses-course-cheerleading-cuts
The Hermantown experience is repeated broadly each year as school boards across the nation battle with planned budgetary expenditures that surpass anticipated revenues. Consider the number of grade level teaching positions reduced against the number of football and basketball and hockey, or even cheerleading, programs that are reduced. What is important remains intact after the budget has been reduced.
For more than a century, the Marshall Field Company prospered with two slogans. The first slogan was “The customer is always right.” This concept fits perfectly with one of the world’s leading retail merchants by assuring a universal understanding that Fields valued customer satisfaction above all else. Certainly there were times when a sales person in the Fields State Street store in Chicago was exasperated with an over demanding customer, but it was that employee’s duty to live up to the Fields’ second promise that they always “Give the lady what she wants.”
A business model for a public school today is little different than that of Marshall Fields. “Give the community what it wants.” If not, parents in the community will take their business to competing schools. What a web we create when we first practice to accommodate. There may not be a limit to the important things that will satisfy a community of school customers.
Aesop tells us this fable. A miller and his son were taking their ass to sell at market, when they passed a group of girls, who laughed at how foolish the miller was to have an ass and yet be walking. So the miller put his son on the ass. Further down the road they passed some old people who scolded the miller for allowing his young son to ride, when he should be riding himself. So the miller removed his son and mounted the ass himself. Further along the road, they passed some travelers who said that if he wanted to sell the ass the two of them should carry him or he’d be exhausted and worthless. So the miller and his son bound the ass’s legs to a pole and carried him. When they approached the town the people laughed at the sight of them, so loud that the noise frightened the ass, who kicked out and fell off a bridge into the river and drowned. The embarrassed miller and son went home with nothing, save the lesson that you will achieve nothing by trying to please everyone.
http://www.businessballs.com/aesopsfables.htm
The most difficult aspect of the “everything is important” conundrum is this; although public educators know that they are Aesop’s miller, they can do nothing in the face of the politically-charged tsunami of parent choice demands, charter and online school options, and politicians who surf on the denigration of the public schools they have created to change the current educational environment.
Perhaps a true test of importance is sitting with a group of children in elementary school to explain what will really be important in their future as they move through the grade levels of school. Keep a straight face with the knowledge that small girls and boys remember everything you tell them. They think of these as promises. Nothing is more important to these children than your promising description of their future. They get excited with everything you tell them. Then, when you are finished and they have gone off to play, every school offering that you did not promise is not important. It’s a beginning.