A Homeschooling Thespian

Help PTA bring back the arts in CA - and across the entire country!  I'm happy to air their PSA, and hope more states join in.

In an article from the London Times today Richard Owen exposes a piece of parchment found in the guest book of The Venerable English College in Rome, suggesting that is it proof that the Bard sought refuge there along with many other hidden English Catholics during the Reformation.  The entries fall between Shakespeare's "missing years" of 1585, when he abruptedly left Stratford, and 1592, when he began his career as a playwright in London. According to Father Andrew Headon, vice-rector of the college and organiser of the exhibition, the names can be deciphered as “[King] Arthur’s [compatriot] from Stratford [in the diocese] of Worcester” and “William the Clerk from Stratford "There are several years which are unaccounted for in Shakespeare's life," Father Headon explains. He adds that it was very likely that Shakespeare had made a pilgrimage to Rome and was a covert Catholic. The article's best quote comes from Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel, a ...

One of the purposes of this blog is to encourage all of us homeschooling moms to remember to take time out for art -- just for art's sake! Art, a music video by Andrea Dorfman

During the 1990's various plans surfaced on how to implement changes in education as part of George Bush's America 2000 plan. Instead of pursuing National Education Standards, it was left up to each state to formulate their own curricula in each of the major subjects of study, including the arts. Arts Education was advanced even further when the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 included the arts as one of 10 core academic subjects, leaving scores of superintendents across the country scrambling to include more arts-oriented activities into their already crowded school year. My state, New York, established the New York State Learning Standards on the Arts in 1996. Homeschoolers of course don't really have to follow any of their state's learning standards (as far as I know) on the arts or any other subject, but as I write out study guides for teachers to incorporate our productions into their classrooms and use these standards fairly regularly, I thought it might be in...

You might think these are my ideas because I'm "into" the arts. But hey, it's not just me. Listen to last year's recommendation from the National Association of Secondary School Principals: Theater participation aids students in several areas, including self-expression, self-development, self-understanding, self-esteem, self-discipline, analytical skills, empathy, human understanding, and competition. Balance between academics and the arts is essential if students are to be prepared to live well-rounded, meaningful lives in the coming century. I think the key word there is balance. There must be a balance between academics and the arts. Academics are necessary -- after all, we are home school ers. It's not like I'm all of a sudden going to ditch math and chemistry to concentrate on the arts. However, I'm not just going to "try to get to it" anymore either! Many states now mandate that exposure to all the arts (including dance, art, music ...

Ten Lessons the Arts Teach HT to Elliot Eisner for putting together this list of reasons of what our children are really learning when we expose them to the arts. If you have time you can read the entire presentation here: 1) The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail. 2) The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer. 3) The arts celebrate multiple perspectives . One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world. 4) The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity . Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds. 5) The arts make vivid the...

I hear you. I've said the same thing myself. After all, as homeschooling moms we're responsible for quite a lot: religion, math, science, history, writing, foreign language, English, literature, grammar... it boggles the mind. How on earth can we add on anything else? Are the arts really that necessary? In a word: yes. We're trying to educate the whole child, his mind and his heart. And his soul! I have a major confession to make. I've been in the theatre my whole life, and because I have boys who like sports, math and science and dislike art and music I've largely neglected that part of their education. I haven't pushed them into exploring the arts like I should have. I have encouraged their love of sports (to the extreme, some would say), their love of nature, their love of math and science, always following their lead and helping them, I thought, to become the person that God wanted them to be. I didn't want to impose my interests onto them, and quite ...