Swimming Upstream Against the Thundering Rapids of Incompetence and Mediocrity: Yet Another Open Letter to City of Richmond School Board Asking for HELP!

Members of the City of Richmond School Board and 
Interim Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Lewis:

I am a retired art resource teacher who taught at John F. Kennedy, Armstrong and Richmond Community before being promoted to the staff at the Arts and Humanities Center, now defunct. 

The following are items the board and superintendent must consider and act on in a timely manner to avoid more damage to arts programs at RPS:

1. When the Arts and Humanities Center was disbanded there were many hundreds of artifacts from all over the world, musical instruments and some valuable paintings stored in school buildings, school closets and at the warehouses at Arlington Road. I myself packed and labeled many of these items before they were transferred out of the building on the campus of Martin Luther King Middle School before the building was razed. I am aware that pilfering of these items has taken place over the years since there was no updated catalogue maintained to track the whereabouts of said items.

2. In addition to the above-mentioned inventory, many school buildings' art and music rooms contain instruments and equipment such as potters wheels and kilns which are seldom if ever used by teachers, and which should be transferred to buildings where children can make use of them or else stored in a central location for future use. Many of these items have been stolen or have fallen into disrepair or neglect and may need attention.

3. Elementary Art and Music Programs: teachers are too often being asked to teach reading and other core subjects, depriving children of their right to the enrichment of arts programs. Classes are overcrowded and the handicapped are mainstreamed without one-on-one or instructional specialists in attendance. This causes much chaos as arts educators, who are not trained in special education, are forced to ignore the regular students to attempt to deal with the needs of the handicapped. The arts positions are only protected because the classes are structured to give classroom teachers their planning periods. Quite a few art teachers have no classrooms and have to teach on a stage, in a hallway or from a cart. Teachers are not provided IEPs for the special needs children so oftentimes these students cannot even be identified by the arts teachers.

4. Middle and High School Art and Music Programs: Besides dealing with poor facilities, low budgets and broken equipment, high school art teachers must cope with the mainstreaming issue mentioned above; again, no interaction with the guidance department as to what is best for the children, no instructional assistants to offer support, etc. When I taught at Armstrong, my art classes consisted of learning disabled, emotionally disturbed, severely emotionally disturbed, intellectually disabled, physically disabled, gifted and regular students in each of my classes. The chaos was unbelievable at times, and I spent a good part of each period on discipline. An art room contains scissors, paper cutters, razor knives, staple guns and other potentially dangerous items which need to be constantly guarded. Musical instruments are of very poor quality, pianos are not tuned, and again, children are mainstreamed into choir classes with no regard for their needs and thus little opportunity for success.

5. AP and IB programs: If the school division wishes to attract more middle class enrollment, these programs must be world class and attractive. The AP program in art is abysmal, with students taking the class for a whole year and then not submitting a portfolio to the college board. A few self-motivated art and music teachers accomplish great things on their own with Advanced Placement, but there is poor system-wide leadership in this area, resulting in no AP classes in the arts at all in several high schools. One of the reasons I retired when I did: I was told I would be coming back on a part time basis to help with AP portfolio development, always an interest of mine.

6. When the Arts and Humanities Center disbanded, art and music instructors were left with no advocate, instructional specialist or leader, and were told that they would henceforth report only to the building principals. Some building principals are enthusiastic about the arts, but too many just want to get their bulletin boards covered and do not engage with arts learning and enrichment for their children. 

The Arts and Humanities Center was low-functioning and should not have continued to exist in its present form. The media there was dated, the leadership incompetent, and the resources were inferior. However, art and music teachers need support, a decent budget and recognition as educators on the same level as core teachers. They are the heart and soul of the school, and the one factor that turns a school from dull to dynamite. 

Visual and performing arts give youngsters a chance to express themselves creatively. Our children at RPS deserve no less than the same opportunity to develop their talents as private schools, county schools and schools in more wealthy areas. 

Art teachers were meeting on their own after I retired, trying to keep their spirits up and share ideas and strategies. I attended a couple of those meetings at local restaurants and felt very sorry for these dedicated professionals swimming upstream against the thundering rapids of incompetence and mediocrity.

PLEASE HELP!

MARY ALICE SHAKER, M.A.

Art Resource Teacher, Retired