Jasper's blog: "My Writing"

Well I can say I got my first published piece today. It was a letter to the editor in our local paper. Honestly I know that’s nothing grand but I’m proud of it. I wrote the letter because it was something that I believed in. They contacted me a week later to verify I wrote it, but I didn’t think they were going to publish it because I didn’t see it at all that week they called me. I had forgotten about it completely so I was surprised to see it in today’s paper. The letter was written in response to another letter that appeared in the paper.

My Letter: Art, music should be key part of curriculum

I'm very dismayed at a letter to the editor by a Knoxville man complaining about a grandmother wishing her grandson could study the violin.

He complained that art and music are a waste and our schools should focus more on math and science. Art and music promote creativity and imagination that is essential for grasping other subjects.

There are plenty of studies that show kids who are exposed to music and art during their early education perform better later in life. Why wouldn't you want programs that promote understanding and creativity in more than just their own fields as part of basic education? Math and science are used in art and music. To read a sheet of music, basic math skills are exercised.

To understand the composition of a color that is not a primary color, we use science to see each individual part. It's sad that the schools are not promoting how these subjects are so dependent on each other because obviously there is a lack of understanding.

Basic math and science will never survive alone, because take away the art and music, and you're left with something that will not capture the imagination of students, and they will fall further behind than they already are now.

To let you see exactly what I was replying to here is the letter I read on May the 28th:

Focus more on math, science, less on music I just shook my head when I read a recent letter to the editor concerning a grandmother's deep concern about the fact that her grandson couldn't study violin at South-Doyle Middle School like he did in Newton County, Ga.

Do you suppose the thought has ever crossed her mind that it is the responsibility of the child's parents to provide him with the music lessons they want him to have? No one has the right to expect taxpayer-financing for every hobby he wants his child to pick up.

Perhaps if our schools would focus more on legitimate academic pursuits, like math and science, and waste less time on recreational activities like art and music, we wouldn't be facing the crisis in academic performance that now looms so large.