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 activity that families can do together, in fact, and it is very beneficial to all members of the household. Teens get to perfect their artistic skills, tweens learn to focus on one thing for long periods of time, and young children work on motor coordination. Those find motor skills are going to help these youngsters as they learn to write.
Such activities are becoming more and more important these days, as many public school systems are taking elective art classes out of their curriculum entirely. They want to focus only on the classes which require total linear right-brained thinking, and this is a shame. As usual, public schools educate for a life of cubicles or service-industry jobs rather than encouraging free thought, artistic expression, and fostering the ability to see new ways to approach a problem.
Because the more creative students do not learn well in a completely linear-styled environment, these students often drop out of school and never pursue much of a college education. This can become a total tragedy for the country. Many of these students do excel in art, science, literature, and music; and by removing these electives from the curriculum they simply give up on school completely.
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.
By creative alternatives they are usually talking about special education, and this has always consisted of a dumbed-down curriculum managed through workbooks and multiple-choice quizzes minutes after the material is read. They are not required even to memorize, only to read and moderately comprehend. This allows teachers to focus on the linear, right-brained students who test well.
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.
This is an activity that families can do together, in fact, and it is very beneficial to all members of the household. Teens get to perfect their artistic skills, tweens learn to focus on one thing for long periods of time, and young children work on motor coordination. Those find motor skills are going to help these youngsters as they learn to write.
Such activities are becoming more and more important these days, as many public school systems are taking elective art classes out of their curriculum entirely. They want to focus only on the classes which require total linear right-brained thinking, and this is a shame. As usual, public schools educate for a life of cubicles or service-industry jobs rather than encouraging free thought, artistic expression, and fostering the ability to see new ways to approach a problem.
Because the more creative students do not learn well in a completely linear-styled environment, these students often drop out of school and never pursue much of a college education. This can become a total tragedy for the country. Many of these students do excel in art, science, literature, and music; and by removing these electives from the curriculum they simply give up on school completely.
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.
By creative alternatives they are usually talking about special education, and this has always consisted of a dumbed-down curriculum managed through workbooks and multiple-choice quizzes minutes after the material is read. They are not required even to memorize, only to read and moderately comprehend. This allows teachers to focus on the linear, right-brained students who test well.
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.