Guest column: Art is everywhere

Art is a many splendored thing. Witness the full room collection of people at the recent school board meeting—no two people were wearing the same thing. Even Superintendent Bob Gates was adorned in fine fabrics, from his underwear and socks, to his sweater and tie.

Art is texture, color, pattern and material, and it comes together in a visual explosion and feel. Be it art on a wall or the design of clothes and jewelry, art is everywhere.

The room that held the meeting had floor tile with a design and laid in a pattern. The chairs had design and comfort, which are vastly different from the old shapeless uncomfortable steel folding chairs. The colors and textures of the tables and everything in the room had eye appeal and comfort. After all, this is a school, and kids should be in attractive and comfortable surroundings.

Even the sheets of paper with mostly black print on white sheets can have more than 1,000 different crafted typefaces, which have been designed over the centuries—first for reading pleasure and now for reading and optical reproduction—and can be presented with cold hard facts, numbers, and information.

Kids today live in an explosion of a visual world of instant pictures on laptops, iPhones and iPads. The styles of how they dress is art as they see it. Athletic uniforms today are statements with their color and prestige—often a major factor in where a top jock goes to college.

Wrangler Jeans was recently recognized for manufacturing more styles of pants in more fabrics than any clothier in history. The reason is simple—people come in different sizes and shapes, and Wrangler makes something to fit everyone in whichever fabric type and color they desire. True artistic business sense.

Last week, the world’s newest and biggest telescope became operational in Chile. It looks back into the history of planet formation. What were these mad scientists, with a vast array of technical equipment, looking for in the multitude of images coming from deep space? They were seeking one simple thing—patterns. Just like medical researchers studying cells and tissue samples—they look for patterns. For centuries people have looked for creatures and patterns in the stars—the constellations— it’s the art of nature.

Stihl chainsaws had been just another brand 40 years ago, and then they hired artists to help design the entire saw unit for simplicity, ease of use and ergonomics. Today they are the world leader in portable cutters. Stihl had the technology, but the artistic creation made them number one in the world.

The splendor of art is everywhere. And kids who do not get a chance, to work with a teacher that really knows how to bring out the creativity of a child, are handicapped by not knowing their own talents.

The Encampment School has been blessed with an incredible art program and teacher. The district board should strive to create this level of education in each school—not reduce it to the lowest common denominator.

How do you define half-time anyhow? Does that mean kids get 25 minutes of instruction in place of 50 minutes? Or, does it mean that of half their school life has no art? Both are half-time.

What about a half of a cup of coffee? If it is a coffee cup and it is cut vertically, it is worthless, but if it is cut in half horizontally, it will hold about a third of a cup of coffee. A half-time teacher has about the same impact.

In our digital world, design and art are everything. Look at the car ads and the sleek artistic design of every aspect of that car, including sound systems that are better than most homes. A strong argument can be made that most kids will use the lessons of art in their life than will use math—simply because math has been reduced to electronics and specialists in every product. But art is created by people—be it hung on a wall, the presentation of clothing lines, the instant transmittal of artistic photography, the preparation and serving of fine food, the color combinations on any product, the boxes that product is packaged in, and a million more examples can be cited. It is all ‘art’ to attract attention.

The Art foundation that starts in a school allows more exploration of individual interests and talents than any other class a kid may take in K through 12th grade. Those interests will help shape the future for a person, regardless of what they choose to do in life. Think about all the occupations that require art work, including taxidermy, dentistry, clothing, home design, electronic communication, auto design and repair, paint colors in any application, eyeglasses, hair styling, jewelry, food prep, attractiveness of any product or package produced for sale, etc.

America is all about doing more for less and being competitive. It is not about doing less for more. Going from fulltime, to halftime, to no time does not fill the bill or educate kids. There are always choices.

Most school districts ask a tremendous amount from their superintendents—like running a large bus fleet, operating a major food operation, supervising administrators and also being an educator. Maybe some of these jobs could be halftime—with other districts—and more focus can be directed to the principals and district leadership that has more than three losing seasons and a masters degree.Have these administrators and principles ever really taught a subject and excelled at it? Do any of them have a record of an art program of the caliber of Encampment? Should they be the ones making these choices? Much of this district work could be shared with other similar districts at major expense savings—especially with computers and the web today. We have virtual learning—why not virtual management?

A good rule in business is to fire the bottom 10 percent of employees every year. Good businesses always push for the best. Does it make any sense to keep a marginal teacher in a subject and not replace an exceptional teacher because it is easy to do? The “quality” of the total educational experience for children should be the key goal here. The district worries about losing kids, so they want to reduce programs. For $15 million dollars we should do better than just cut and run on the budget. Or, should we find real educational leadership that can do the job for our kids?