“Cause our stupid schools sure ain’t,” she said.
Last weekend I took my daughter to LACMA (the Los Angeles County Museum of Art). I hadn’t been in a decade and WOW, was I blown away by the incredible experience.
LACMA is a really good museum. And I like really good museums. Why I haven’t been in more than 10 years, I have no idea.
Anyway, LACMA lured us to their museum with an offer of free art for kids. (My daughter’s 3 1/2 so what a great way to spend a Sunday, right?) Of course, it was a home run. Of course, there were scores and scores of other parents taking advantage of the day. Of course, 10 minutes after I arrived I was thinking to myself, “Why haven’t I waited so long?”
And then the nice lady at LACMA asked my daughter if she wanted to become a member of the museum. She said “Yes!” without asking the price. (She does that a lot.) But as it turns out, the price was free.
As it turns out, they gave her a free membership until she turns 18. It’s called NexGen. And everytime she comes, we get one free adult admission as well.
“Cool!” I said. “What a great program.”
“Yeah, well, we have to develop the next generation of artists and kids people who appreciate art,” the lady told me. “Cause our stupid schools sure ain’t,” she said.
Owch!
It was an unprompted comment. She didn’t even know I was a teacher. She just blasted away with a genuine sense of nobility about what she was doing combined with contempt for what our schools are doing mixed in her voice.
And I could not have agreed more completely.
Is modern day education striving to stamp out the human spirit on purpose or is all this nonsense just a by-product of stupidity, short-sightedness and an a fear that if we do not create enough child-widgets, our country is going to turn into a widget-less adult workforce?
As the proverb says, “Man cannot live by bread alone.”
You're a bigger man than I am because I think I would have challenged her. To me this is another example of school being the scapegoat for all the ills of society. I suggest that society in general categorizes the arts (classic arts) as fluff unless there is money to be made. Maybe I'm an idealist. I tell the kids from day one, there's a disconnect between grades and learning. What your daughter did was learn. When I teach “A Wagner Matinee” I try to discuss this with the kids. They don't know what they are missing because they've never been exposed to it. But to solve this problem, we need funding, and trips to the museum aren't tested in the standards, and rural school district students are miles away from museums and shows and musicals, but we do our best. Of course, every field trip now requires the student to follow up with an essay (just to put a bit of a negative spin on it).