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Students May Need A Place To Paint Pottery

By Deana Norton


Housewives in Salt Lake City, UT have found that adding their own special touches to a piece of art for their home makes it a much more intriguing and personal item. This can happen when one embroiders a name onto a garment, or when one paints an item they purchased elsewhere. Hobby stores have noted this trend, and many not only sell the ceramic pieces, but also provide a place to paint pottery.

This is an excellent activity for a family to do together, as it not only allows them to share their own unique abilities, but it brings them all together in an activity that does not involve eating or television. Young children around the ages of 8 to 12 benefit by the act of concentrating on one activity for a long period of time, children around the ages of 3 to 8 are honing their fine-motor skills, and teenagers just like to be artistic and unique. Mom and Dad get bragging rights for the work their kids do, not to mention being such good parents to engage in this activity with their children at all.

Public schools are cutting out more electives these days, and forcing children to take only linear types of classes. Most people agree that the basic reading, writing, and arithmetic are very important lessons students should focus on. However, by removing the arts they are taking away what is, for some students, the only class they enjoy at all.

For many students, these electives are the only part of the school day that matters, and removing them will only discourage already frustrated students. The attrition rate in public schools gets higher and higher each year, and so-called experts all want to act like they do not understand why this is happening. It is obvious to anyone paying attention that students who struggle with the reading, writing, and arithmetic curriculum were still excelling in art, music, and often science or literature.

Each year the numbers of students who drop out rather than graduate in the usual way becomes more and more nebulous. The frustrated students who do hang on till the end often do so because they are part of clubs in the school which allow them to pursue the arts still, or at least grant them understanding ears to hear them. The standardized testing system which was put in place during the 90s has been a sore subject for many creative-minded students because it requires them to have a learning style of rote memorization, which many do not possess.

There are many people who believe that this change in society has been done by design, by an aristocratic class who only wishes our children to be intelligent enough to operate the machines without being intelligent enough to ask themselves why. The changes in public education which occurred in the 90s lends credibility to this perspective. When you see how many young people have been pigeon-holed into "creative" educational alternatives, it does appear intentional on many levels.

This push to get children into special education classes in order to grant them simplified tests, or no testing at all, has another edge to it known as Ritalin or Adderall. In the modern classroom, about 30% of the students are on some form of mind-altering medication in order to help them "concentrate". The fact is, by removing art, music, and physical education; they have created the perfect storm for active minds held captive to express themselves as active bodies.

Parents who are still able to create, and wish their children to be able to do the same, are encouraged to look into these kiln studios as a way to help bring about a well-rounded education for their children. Without music and art, culture becomes far too much like Brave New World. There has to be a balance between what you have to learn and what you want to learn.




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